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PUBLIC LIBRARY THE BRANCH L BRAR.ES

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The balloons floated and filled the sky

ROOTABAGA
STORIES

CARL 5ANDBURG

Author of "Slabs of the Sunburnt West," "Smoke
and Steel," "Chicago Poems, " "Corahuskers "

ILLUSTRATIONS AND DECORATIONS

MAUD AND MI5KA PLTLR5HAM

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NEW YORK

HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY

Published, October, 1922
Second Printing, October. 1922
Third Printing, November, 1922
Fourth Printing, i\ovi_mber, 1922
Fifth Printing, December, 1922

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PRINTED IN THE U 8. A. BY

THE QUINN & BODEN COMPANY

RAHWAY. N. J

SPINK AND SKABOOTCH

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CONTENTS

Three Stories About the Finding of the Zigzag Rail-
road, the Pigs with Bibs On, the Circus Clown
Ovens, the Village of Liver-and-Onions, the
Village of Cream Puffs

How They Broke Away to Go to the Rootabaga Country 3

How They Bring Back the Village of Cream Puffs When the
Wind Blows It Away 19

How the Five Rusty Rats Helped Find a New Village 29

2.
Five Stories About the Potato Face Blind Man

The Potato Face Blind Man Who Lost the Diamond Rabbit on
His Gold Accordion 41

How the Potato Face Blind Man Enjoyed Himself on a Fine
Spring Morning 45

Poker Face the Baboon and Hot Dog the Tiger 53

The Toboggan-to-the-Moon Dream of the Potato Face Blind

Man 59
How Gimme the Ax Found Out About the Zigzag Railroad and

Who Made It Zigzag 65

Three Stories About the Gold Buckskin Whincher

The Story of Blixie Bimber and the Power of the Gold Buck-
skin Whincher 73

Contents

The Story of Jason Squiff and Why He Had a Popcorn Hat,
Popcorn Mittens and Popcorn Shoes 79

The Story of Rags Habakuk, the Two Blue Rats, and the Circus
Man Who Came With Spot Cash Money 89

Four Stories About the Deep Doom of Dark
Doorways

The Wedding Procession of the Rag Doll and the Broom Handle
and Who Was in It 99

How the Hat Ashes Shovel Helped Snoo Foo 105

Three Boys with Jugs of Molasses and Secret Ambitions 109

How Bimboo the Snip's Thumb Stuck to His Nose When the
Wind Changed 123

Three Stories About Three Ways the Wind Went
Winding

The Two Skyscrapers Who Decided to Have a Child 133
The Dollar Watch and the Five Jack Rabbits 141
The Wooden Indian and the Shaghorn Buffalo 151

Four Stories About Dear, Dear Eyes

The White Horse Girl and the Blue Wind Boy 759

What Six Girls with Balloons Told the Gray Man on
Horseback 767

How Henry Hagglyhoagly Played the Guitar With His Mittens
On 775

Never Kick a Slipper at the Moon 75*5

Contents

7,
One Story — "Only the Fire-Born Understand Blue"

Sand Flat Shadows 191

Two Stories About Corn Fairies, Blue Foxes, Flong-
boos and Happenings that Happened in the
United States and Canada

How to Tell Corn Fairies When You See 'Em 205

How the Animals Lost Their Tails and Got Them Back Travel-
ing from Philadelphia to Medicine Hat 213

PACK

FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS

The balloons floated and filled the sky

Frontispiece (In color)

He opened the ragbag and took out all the spot cash

money 7

Then the uncles asked her the first question first . 21

They held on to the long curved tails of the rusty

rats 33

"I am sure many people will stop and remember the

Potato Face Blind Man" .... 47

His hat was popcorn, his mittens popcorn and his

shoes popcorn 83

They stepped into the molasses with their bare feet . 113
The monkey took the place of the traffic policeman . 129
So they stood looking 153

It seemed to him as though the sky came down close

to his nose . . . . . . . .177

Away off where the sun was coming up there were

people and animals . . . . . .195

There on a high stool in a high tower on a high hill

sits the Head Spotter of the Weather Makers . 215

1. Three Stories About the Finding
of the Zigzag Railroad, the Pigs
with Bibs On, the Circus Clown
Ovens, the Village of Liver-and-
Onions, the Village of Cream
Puffs.

People : Gimme the Ax
Please Gimme
Ax Me No Questions
The Ticket Agent
Wing Tip the Spick
The Four Uncles
The Rat in a Blizzard
The Five Rusty Rats

More People:

Balloon Pickers
Baked Clowns
Polka Dot Pigs

How They Broke Away to Go to the
Rootabaga Country

Gimme the Ax lived in a house where every-
thing is the same as it always was.

"The chimney sits on top of the house and
lets the smoke out," said Gimme the Ax. "The
doorknobs open the doors. The windows are
always either open or shut. We are always
either upstairs or downstairs in this house.
Everything is the same as it always was/

So he decided to let his children name them-
selves.

How They Broke Away to Go

"The first words they speak as soon as they
learn to make words shall be their names/' he
said. "They shall name themselves.5

When the first boy came to the house of
Gimme the Ax, he was named Please Gimme.
When the first girl came she was named Ax
Me No Questions.

And both of the children had the shadows
of valleys by night in their eyes and the lights
of early morning, when the sun is coming up,
on their foreheads.

And the hair on top of their heads was a
dark wild grass. And they loved to turn the
doorknobs, open the doors, and run out to have
the wind comb their hair and touch their
eyes and put its six soft fingers on their fore-
heads.

And then because no more boys came and no
more girls came, Gimme the Ax said to him-
self, "My first boy is my last and my last girl
is my first and they picked their names them-
selves."

To the Rootabaga Country

Please Gimme -grew up and his ears got
longer. Ax Me No Questions grew up and her
ears got longer. And they kept on living in the
house where everything is the same as it al-
ways was. They learned to say just as their
father said, "The chimney sits on top of the
house and lets the smoke out, the doorknobs

open the doors, the windows are always either
open or shut, we are always either upstairs or

downstairs — everything is the same as it al-
ways was."

After a while they began asking each other
in the cool of the evening after they had eggs
for breakfast in the morning, "Who's who?
How much? And what's the answer?3

"It is too much to be too long anywhere,"
said the tough old man, Gimme the Ax.

And Please Gimme and Ax Me No Ques-
tions, the tough son and the tough daughter

of Gimme the Ax, answered their father, "It
is too much to be too long any where. ):

So they sold everything they had, pigs, pas-

How They Broke Away to Go

tures, pepper pickers, pitchforks, everything
except their ragbags and a few extras.

When their neighbors saw them selling ev-
erything they had, the different neighbors said,
"They are going to Kansas, to Kokomo, to Can-
ada, to Kankakee, to Kalamazoo, to Kam-
chatka, to the Chattahoochee."

One little sniffer with his eyes half shut and
a mitten on his nose, laughed in his hat five
ways and said, "They are going to the moon
and when they get there they will find every-
thing is the same as it always was."

All the spot cash money he got for selling
everything, pigs, pastures, pepper pickers,
pitchforks, Gimme the Ax put in a ragbag and
slung on his back like a rag picker going home.

Then he took Please Gimme, his oldest and
youngest and only son, and Ax Me No Ques-
tions, his oldest and youngest and only daugh-
ter, and went to the railroad station.

The ticket agent was sitting at the window
selling railroad tickets the same as always.

He opened the ragbag and took out all the

spot cash money

To the Rootabaga Country

"Do you wish a ticket to go away and come
back or do you wish a ticket to go away and
never come back?" the ticket agent asked wip-
ing sleep out of his eyes.

"We wish a ticket to ride where the rail-
road tracks run off into the sky and never come
back — send us far as the railroad rails go and
then forty ways farther yet," was the reply of
Gimme the Ax.

"So far? So early? So soon?" asked the
ticket agent wiping more sleep out his eyes.
"Then I will give you a new ticket. It blew in.
It is a long slick yellow leather slab ticket with
a blue spanch across it.5:

Gimme the Ax thanked the ticket agent once,
thanked the ticket agent twice, and then in-
stead of thanking the ticket agent three times
he opened the ragbag and took out all the spot
cash money he got for selling everything, pigs,
pastures, pepper pickers, pitchforks, and paid
the spot cash money to the ticket agent.

Before he put it in his pocket he looked once,

How They Broke Away to Go

twice, three times at the long yellow leather
slab ticket with a blue spanch across it.

Then with Please Gimme and Ax Me No
Questions he got on the railroad train, showed
the conductor his ticket and they started to ride
to where the railroad tracks run off into the
blue sky and then forty ways farther yet.

The train ran on and on. It came to the
place where the railroad tracks run off into
the blue sky. And it ran on and on chick chick-
a-chick chick-a-chick chick-a-chick.

Sometimes the engineer hooted and tooted
the whistle. Sometimes the fireman rang the
bell. Sometimes the open-and-shut of the
steam hog's nose choked and spit pfisty-pfoost,
pfisty-pfoost, pfisty-pfoost. But no matter
what happened to the whistle and the bell and
the steam hog, the train ran on and on to where
the railroad tracks run off into the blue sky.
And then it ran on and on more and more.

Sometimes Gimme the Ax looked in his
pocket, put his fingers in and took out the long

To the Rootabaga Country

slick yellow leather slab ticket with a blue
spanch across it.

"Not even the Kings of Egypt with all their
climbing camels, and all their speedy, spotted,
lucky lizards, ever had a ride like this," he said
to his children.

Then something happened. They met an-
other train running on the same track. One
train was going one way. The other was go-
ing the other way. They met. They passed
each other.

"What was it — what happened?" the chil-
dren asked their father.

"One train went over, the other train went
under," he answered. "This is the Over and
Under country. Nobody get's out of the way
of anybody else. They either go over or
under."

Next they came to the country of the bal-
loon pickers. Hanging down from the sky
strung on strings so fine the eye could not see
them at first, was the balloon crop of that sum-

How They Broke Away to Go

mer. The sky was thick with balloons. Red,
blue, yellow balloons, white, purple and orange
balloons — peach, watermelon and potato bal-
loons— rye loaf and wheat loaf balloons — link
sausage and pork chop balloons — they floated
and rilled the sky.

The balloon pickers were walking on high
stilts picking balloons. Each picker had his
own stilts, long or short. For picking balloons
near the ground he had short stilts. If he
wanted to pick far and high he walked on a
far and high pair of stilts.

Baby pickers on baby stilts were picking
baby balloons. When they fell off the stilts
the handful of balloons they were holding kept
them in the air till they got their feet into the
stilts again.

"Who is that away up there in the sky climb-
ing like a bird in the morning?" Ax Me No
Questions asked her father.

"He was singing too happy," replied the
father. "The songs came out of his neck and

To the Rootabaga Country

made him so light the balloons pulled him off
his stilts."

"Will he ever come down again back to his
own people?"

"Yes, his heart will get heavy when his songs
are all gone. Then he will drop down to his
stilts again."

The train was running on and on. The en-
gineer hooted and tooted the whistle when he
felt like it. The fireman rang the bell when
he felt that way. And sometimes the open-
and-shut of the steam hog had to go pfisty-
pfoost, pfisty-pfoost.

"Next is the country where the circus clowns
come from,j: said Gimme the Ax to his son
and daughter. "Keep your eyes open."

They did keep their eyes open. They saw
cities with ovens, long and short ovens, fat
stubby ovens, lean lank ovens, all for baking
either long or short clowns, or fat and stubby
or lean and lank clowns.

After each clown was baked in the oven it

How They Broke Away to Go

was taken out into the sunshine and put up to
stand like a big white doll with a red mouth
leaning against the fence.

Two men came along to each baked clown
standing still like a doll. One man threw a
bucket of white fire over it. The second man
pumped a wind pump with a living red wind
through the red mouth.

The clown rubbed his eyes, opened his
mouth, twisted his neck, wiggled his ears,
wriggled his toes, jumped away from the fence
and began turning handsprings, cartwheels,
somersaults and flipflops in the sawdust ring
near the fence.

"The next we come to is the Rootabaga
Country where the big city is the Village of
Liver-and-Onions," said Gimme the Ax, look-

ing again in his pocket to be sure he had the
long slick yellow leather slab ticket with a
blue spanch across it.

The train ran on and on till it stopped run-
ning straight and began running in zigzags

To the Rootabaga Country

like one letter Z put next to another Z and the
next and the next.

The tracks and the rails and the ties and
the spikes under the train all stopped being
straight and changed to zigzags like one letter
Z and another letter Z put next after the other.

"It seems like we go half way and then back
up," said Ax Me No Questions.

"Look out of the window and see if the pigs
have bibs on/: said Gimme the Ax. "If the
pigs are wearing bibs then this is the Rootabaga
country."

And they looked out of the zigzagging win-
dows of the zigzagging cars and the first pigs
they saw had bibs on. And the next pigs and
the next pigs they saw all had bibs on.

The checker pigs had checker bibs on, the

•

striped pigs had striped bibs on. And the polka
dot pigs had polka dot bibs on.

"Who fixes it for the pigs to have bibs on?"
Please Gimme asked his father.

"The fathers and mothers fix it," answered

How They Broke Away to Go

Gimme the Ax. "The checker pigs have
checker fathers and mothers. The striped
pigs have striped fathers and mothers. And
the polka dot pigs have polka dot fathers and
mothers."

And the train went zigzagging on and on
running on the tracks and the rails and the
spikes and the ties which were all zigzag like
the letter Z and the letter Z.

And after a while the train zigzagged on into
the Village of Liver-and-Onions, known as the
biggest city in the big, big Rootabaga country.

And so if you are going to the Rootabaga
country you will know when you get there be-
cause the railroad tracks change from straight
to zigzag, the pigs have bibs on and it is the
fathers and mothers who fix it.

And if you start to go to that country remem-
ber first you must sell everything you have,
pigs, pastures, pepper pickers, pitchforks, put
the spot cash money in a ragbag and go to the
railroad station and ask the ticket agent for a

To the Rootabaga Country

long slick yellow leather slab ticket with a blue
spanch across it.

And you mustn't be surprised if the ticket
agent wipes sleep from his eyes and asks, "So
far? So early? So soon? "

How They Bring Back the Village of
Cream Puffs When the Wind Blows

It Away

A girl named Wing Tip the Spick came to
the Village of Liver-and-Onions to visit her
uncle and her uncle's uncle on her mother's
side and her uncle and her uncle's uncle on her
father's side.

It was the first time the four uncles had a
chance to see their little relation, their niece.
Each one of the four uncles was proud of the
blue eyes of Wing Tip the Spick.

How They Bring Back Village

The two uncles on her mother's side took a
long deep look into her blue eyes and said, "Her
eyes are so blue, such a clear light blue, they are
the same as cornflowers with blue raindrops
shining and dancing on silver leaves after a
sun shower in any of the summer months.51

And the two uncles on her father's side, after
taking a long deep look into the eyes of Wing
Tip the Spick, said, "Her eyes are so blue, such
a clear light shining blue, they are the same as
cornflowers with blue raindrops shining and
dancing on the silver leaves after a sun shower
in any of the summer months/

And though Wing Tip the Spick didn't listen
and didn't hear what the uncles said about her
blue eyes, she did say to herself when they were
not listening, "I know these are sweet uncles
and I am going to have a sweet time visiting
my relations."

The four uncles said to her, "Will you let
us ask you two questions, first the first question
and second the second question?3

Then the uncles asked her the first question first

When Wind Blows It Away

"I will let you ask me fifty questions this
morning, fifty questions tomorrow morning,
and fifty questions any morning. I like to lis-
ten to questions. They slip in one ear and slip
out of the other."

Then the uncles asked her the first question
first, "Where do you come from? " and the sec-
ond question second, "Why do you have two
freckles on your chin? "

" Answering your first question first," said
Wing Tip the Spick, "I come from the Village
o? Cream Puffs, a little light village on the
upland corn prairie. From a long ways off it
loots like a little hat you could wear on the end
of your thumb to keep the rain off your thumb."

"Tell us more," said one uncle. "Tell us
much," said another uncle. "Tell it without
stopping," added another uncle. "Interrup-
tions nix nix," murmured the last of the
uncles.

"It is a light little village on the upland corn
prairie many miles past the sunset in the west,"

How They Bring Back Village

went on Wing Tip the Spick. "It is light the
same as a cream puff is light. It sits all by it-
self on the big long prairie where the prairie
goes up in a slope. There on the slope the winds
play around the village. They sing it wind
songs, summer wind songs in summer, winter
wind songs in winter."

"And sometimes like an accident, the wind
gets rough. And when the wind gets rough it
picks up the little Village of Cream Puffs and
blows it away off in the sky — all by itself/

"O-o-h-h," said one uncle. "Um-m-m-m,"
said the other three uncles.

"Now the people in the village all under-
stand the winds with their wind songs in sum-
mer and winter. And they understand the
rough wind who comes sometimes and picks up
the village and blows it away off high in the
sky all by itself.

"If you go to the public square in the middle
of the village you will see a big roundhouse.
If you take the top off the roundhouse you will

When Wind Blows It Away

see a big spool with a long string winding up
around the spool.

"Now whenever the rough wind comes and
picks up the village and blows it away off high
in the sky all by itself then the string winds
loose off the spool, because the village is fas-
tened to the string. So the rough wind blows
and blows and the string on the spool winds
looser and looser the farther the village goes
blowing away off into the sky all by itself.

"Then at last when the rough wind, so for-
getful, so careless, has had all the fun it wants,
then the people of the village all come together
and begin to wind up the spool and bring back
the village where it was before. r

"O-o-h-h," said one uncle. "Um-m-m-m,"
said the other three uncles.

"And sometimes when you come to the vil-
lage to see your little relation, your niece who
has four such sweet uncles, maybe she will lead
you through the middle of the city to the pub-
lic square and show you the roundhouse. They

How They Bring Back Fillage

<call it the Roundhouse of the Big Spool. And
they are proud because it was thought up and is
there to show when visitors come/

"And now will you answer the second ques-
tion second — why do you have two freckles
on your chin? : interrupted the uncle who had
said before, "Interruptions nix nix."

"The freckles are put on,': answered Wing
Tip the Spick. "When a girl goes away from
the Village of Cream Puffs her mother puts on
two freckles, on the chin. Each freckle must
be the same as a little burnt cream puff kept in
the oven too long. After the two freckles look-
ing like two little burnt cream puffs are put on
her chin, they remind the girl every morning
when she combs her hair and looks in the look-
ing glass. They remind her where she came
from and she mustn't stay away too long."

"O-h-h-h," said one uncle. "Um-m-m-m,"
said the other three uncles. And they talked
among each other afterward, the four uncles
by themselves, saying:

When Wind Blows It Away

"She has a gift. It is her eyes. They are so
blue, such a clear light blue, the same as corn-
flowers with blue raindrops shining and danc-
ing on silver leaves after a sun shower in any
of the summer months."

At the same time Wing Tip the Spick was
saying to herself, "I know for sure now these
are sweet uncles and I am going to have a sweet
time visiting my relations."

How the Five Rusty Rats Helped Find a

New Village

One day while Wing Tip the Spick was visit-
ing her four uncles in the Village of Liver-and-
Onions, a blizzard came up. Snow filled the
sky and the wind blew and made a noise like
heavy wagon axles grinding and crying.

And on this day a gray rat came to the house
of the four uncles, a rat with gray skin and
gray hair, gray as the gray gravy on a beefsteak.
The rat had a basket. In the basket was a cat-
fish. And the rat said, "Please let me have a
little fire and a little salt as I wish to make a

How the Five Rusty Rats

little bowl of hot catfish soup to keep me warm
through the blizzard.51

And the four uncles all said together, "This
is no time for rats to be around — and we would
like to ask you where you got the catfish in the
basket. >:

"Oh, oh, oh, please — in the name of the five
rusty rats, the five lucky rats of the Village of
Cream Puffs, please don't/' was the exclama-
tion of Wing Tip the Spick.

The uncles stopped. They looked long and
deep into the eyes of Wing Tip the Spick and
thought, as they had thought before, how her
eyes were clear light blue the same as corn-
flowers with blue raindrops shining on the silver
leaves in a summer sun shower.

And the four uncles opened the door and let
the gray rat come in with the basket and the
catfish. They showed the gray rat the way to
the kitchen and the fire and the salt. And they
watched the rat and kept him company while
he fixed himself a catfish soup to keep him

Helped Find a New Village

warm traveling through the blizzard with the
sky full of snow.

After they opened the front door and let the
rat out and said good-by, they turned to Wing
Tip the Spick and asked her to tell them about
the five rusty lucky rats of the Village of Cream
Puffs where she lived with her father and her
mother and her folks.

"When I was a little girl growing up, before
I learned all I learned since I got older, my
grandfather gave me a birthday present because
I was nine years, old. I remember how he said
to me, 'You will never be nine years old again
after this birthday, so I give you this box for
a birthday present.'

"In the box was a pair of red slippers with a
gold clock on each slipper. One of the clocks
ran fast. The other clock ran slow. And he
told me if I wished to be early anywhere I
should go by the clock that ran fast. And if I
wished to be late anywhere I should go by the
clock that ran slow.

'How the Five Rusty Rats

"And that same birthday he took me down
through the middle of the Village of Cream
Puffs to the public square near the Roundhouse
of the Big Spool. There he pointed his finger
at the statue of the five rusty rats, the five
lucky rats. And as near as I can remember
his words, he said:

" 'Many years ago, long before the snow
birds began to wear funny little slip-on hats and

funny little slip-on shoes, and away back long
before the snow birds learned how to slip off

their slip-on hats and how to slip off their slip-
on shoes, long ago in the faraway Village of
Liver-and-Onions, the people who ate cream
puffs came together and met in the streets and
picked up their baggage and put their belong-
ings on their shoulders and marched out of the
Village of Liver-and-Onions saying, "We shall
find a new place for a village and the name
of it shall be the Village of Cream Puffs.

" 'They marched out on the prairie with
their baggage and belongings in sacks on their

They held on to the long curved tails of

the rusty rats

Helped Find a New Village

shoulders. And a blizzard came up. Snow
filled the sky. The wind blew and blew and
made a noise like heavy wagon axles grinding
and crying.

" cThe snow came on. The wind twisted all
day and all night and all the next day. The
wind changed black and twisted and spit icicles
in their faces. They got lost in the blizzard.
They expected to die and be buried in the snow
for the wolves to come and eat them.

" cThen the five lucky rats came, the five
rusty rats, rust on their skin and hair, rust on
their feet and noses, rust all over, and especially,
most especially of all, rust on their long curved
tails. They dug their noses down into the snow
and their long curved tails stuck up far above
the snow where the people who were lost in
the blizzard could take hold of the tails like
handles.

" cAnd so, while the wind and the snow blew
and the blizzard beat its icicles in their faces,
they held on to the long curved tails of the

How the Five Rusty Rats

rusty rats till they came to the place where
the Village of Cream Puffs now stands. It was
the rusty rats who saved their lives and showed
them where to put their new village. That is
why this statue now stands in the public square,
this statue of the shapes of the five rusty rats,
the five lucky rats with their noses down in
the snow and their long curved tails lifted high
out of the snow.'

"That is the story as my grandfather told
it to me. And he said it happened long ago,
long before the snow birds began to wear slip-
on hats and slip-on shoes, long before they
learned how to slip off the slip-on hats and to
slip off the slip-on shoes.*

"O-h-h-h," said one of the uncles. "Um-
m-m-m," said the other three uncles.

"And sometime," added Wing Tip the Spick,
"when you go away from the Village of Liver-
and-Onions and cross the Shampoo River and
ride many miles across the upland prairie till
you come to the Village of Cream Puffs, you

Helped Find a New Village

will find a girl there who loves four uncles very
much.

"And if you ask her politely, she will show
you the red slippers with gold clocks on them,
one clock to be early by, the other to be late by.
And if you are still more polite she will take
you through the middle of the town to the pub-
lic square and show you the statue of the five
rusty lucky rats with their long curved tails
sticking up in the air like handles. And the
tails are curved so long and so nice you will
feel like going up and taking hold of them to
see what will happen to you."

2. Five Stories About the
Potato Face Blind Man

People: The Potato Face Blind Man
Any Ice Today
Pick Ups
Lizzie Lazarus
Poker Face the Baboon
Hot Dog the Tiger
Whitson Whimble
A Man Shoveling Money
A Watermelon Moon
White Gold Boys
Blue Silver Girls
Big White Moon Spiders
Zizzies
Gimme the Ax Again

The Potato Face Blind Man Who Lost
the Diamond Rabbit on His Gold

Accordion

There was a Potato Face Blind Man used to
play an accordion on the Main Street corner
nearest the postoffice in the Village of Liver-
and-Onions.

Any Ice Today came along and said, "It
looks like it used to be an 18 carat gold accor-
dion with rich pawnshop diamonds in it; it
looks like it used to be a grand accordion once
and not so grand now."

"Oh, yes, oh, yes, it was gold all over on the
outside," said the Potato Face Blind Man, "and

The Potato Face Blind Man

there was a diamond rabbit next to the handles
on each side, two diamond rabbits/

"How do you mean diamond rabbits?"
Any Ice Today asked.

"Ears, legs, head, feet, ribs, tail, all fixed
out in diamonds to make a nice rabbit with his
diamond chin on his diamond toenails. When
I play good pieces so people cry hearing my
accordion music, then I put my fingers over and
feel of the rabbit's diamond chin on his dia-
mond toenails, 'Attaboy, li'l bunny, attaboy,
li'l bunny.' "

"Yes I hear you talking but it is like dream
talking. I wonder why your accordion looks
like somebody stole it and took it to a pawnshop
and took it out and somebody stole it again and
took it to a pawnshop and took it out and some-
body stole it again. And they kept on stealing
it and taking it out of the pawnshop and steal-
ing it again till the gold wore off so it looks
like a used-to-be-yesterday.'1

"Oh, yes, o-h, y-e-s, you are right. It is not

Who Lost the Diamond Rabbit

like the accordion it used to be. It knows more
knowledge than it used to know just the same
as this Potato Face Blind Man knows more
knowledge than he used to know/

"Tell me about it," said Any Ice Today.

"It is simple. If a blind man plays an accor-
dion on the street to make people cry it makes
them sad and when they are sad the gold goes
away off the accordion. And if a blind man
goes to sleep because his music is full of sleepy
songs like the long wind in a sleepy valley, then
while the blind man is sleeping the diamonds
in the diamond rabbit all go away. I play a
sleepy song and go to sleep and I wake up and
the diamond ear of the diamond rabbit is gone.
I play another sleepy song and go to sleep
and wake up and the diamond tail of the
diamond rabbit is gone. After a while all
the diamond rabbits are gone, even the diamond
chin sitting on the diamond toenails of the
rabbits next to the handles of the accordion,
even those are gone."

The Potato Face Blind Man

"Is there anything I can do?" asked Any Ice
Today.

"I do it myself," said the Potato Face Blind
Man. "If I am too sorry I just play the sleepy
song of the long wind going up the sleepy val-
leys. And that carries me away where I have
time and money to dream about the new won-
derful accordions and postoffices where every-
body that gets a letter and everybody that don't
get a letter stops and remembers the Potato
Face Blind Man."

How the Potato Face Blind Man Enjoyed
Himself on a Fine Spring Morning

On a Friday morning when the flummywis-
ters were yodeling yisters high in the elm trees,
the Potato Face Blind Man came down to his
work sitting at the corner nearest the postoffice
in the Village of Liver-and-Onions and play-
ing his gold-that-used-to-be accordion for the
pleasure of the ears of the people going into
the postoffice to see if they got any letters for
themselves or their families.

"It is a good day, a lucky day," said the Po-
tato Fac^ Blind Man, "because for a begin-

How the Potato Face Blind Man

ning I have heard high in the elm trees the
flummywisters yodeling their yisters in the long
branches of the lingering leaves. So — so —
I am going to listen to myself playing on my
accordion the same yisters, the same yodels,
drawing them like long glad breathings out of
my glad accordion, long breathings of the
branches of the lingering leaves."

And he sat down in his chair. On the sleeve
of his coat he tied a sign, "I Am Blind Too."
On the top button of his coat he hung a little
thimble. On the bottom button of his coat he
hung a tin copper cup. On the middle button
he hung a wooden mug. By the side of him on
the left side on the sidewalk he put a galvanized
iron washtub, and on the right side an alumi-
num dishpan.

"It is a good day, a lucky day, and I am sure
many people will stop and remember the Potato
Face Blind Man," he sang to himself like a
little song as he began running his fingers up
and down the keys of the accordion like the

"I am sure many people will stop and remember the

Potato Face Blind Man"

Enjoyed Himself on a Spring Morning

yisters of the lingering leaves in the elm trees.

Then came Pick Ups. Always it happened
Pick Ups asked questions and wished to know.
And so this is how the questions and answers
ran when the Potato Face filled the ears of
Pick Ups with explanations.

"What is the piece you are playing on the
keys of your accordion so fast sometimes, so
slow sometimes, so sad some of the moments,
so glad some of the moments?"

"It is the song the mama flummywisters sing
when they button loose the winter underwear
of the baby flummywisters and sing:

"Fly, you little flummies,
Sing, you little wisters."

"And why do you have a little thimble on
the top button of your coat? "

"That is for the dimes to be put in. Some
people see it and say, <Oh, I must put in a whole
thimbleful of dimes.' "

"And the tin copper cup?"

How the Potato Face Blind Man

"That is for the base ball players to stand
off ten feet and throw in nickels and pennies.
The one who throws the most into the cup will
be the most lucky."

"And the wooden mug? "

"There is a hole in the bottom of it. The
hole is as big as the bottom. The nickel goes
in and comes out again. It is for the very poor
people who wish to give me a nickel and yet get
the nickel back."

"The aluminum dishpan and the galvanized
iron washtub — what are they doing by the side
of you on both sides on the sidewalk? 3

"Sometime maybe it will happen everybody
who goes into the postoffice and comes out will
stop and pour out all their money, because they
might get afraid their money is no good any
more. If such a happening ever happens then
it will be nice for the people to have some place
to pour their money. Such is the explanation
why you see the aluminum dishpan and gal-
vanized iron tub."

Enjoyed Himself on a Spring Morning

"Explain your sign — why is it, CI Am Blind
Too.' "

"Oh, I am sorry to explain to you, Pick Ups,
why this is so which. Some of the people who
pass by here going into the postoffice and com-
ing out, they have eyes — but they see nothing
with their eyes. They look where they are go-
ing and they get where they wish to get, but
they forget why they came and they do not
know how to come away. They are my blind
brothers. It is for them I have the sign that
reads, <I Am Blind Too* "

"I have my ears full of explanations and I
thank you," said Pick Ups.

"Good-by," said the Potato Face Blind Man
as he began drawing long breathings like lin-
gering leaves out of the accordion — along with
the song the mama flummywisters sing when
they button loose the winter underwear of the
baby flummywisters.

Poker Face the Baboon and Hot Dog

the Tiger

When the moon has a green rim with red
meat inside and black seeds on the red meat,
then in the Rootabaga Country they call it a
Watermelon Moon and look for anything to
happen.

It was a night when a Watermelon Moon was
shining. Lizzie Lazarus came to the upstairs
room of the Potato Face Blind Man. Poker
Face the Baboon and Hot Dog the Tiger were
with her. She was leading them with a pink
string.

Poker Face the Baboon

"You see they are wearing pajamas," she
said. "They sleep with you to-night and to-
morrow they go to work with you like mas-
cots."

"How like mascots?" asked the Potato Face
Blind Man.

"They are luck bringers. They keep your
good luck if it is good. They change your bad
luck if it is bad."

"I hear you and my ears get your explana-
tions."

So the next morning when the Potato Face
Blind Man sat down to play his accordion on
the corner nearest the postoffice in the Village
of Liver-and-Onions, next to him on the right
hand side sitting on the sidewalk was Poker
Face the Baboon and on the left hand side
sitting next to him was Hot Dog the Tiger.

They looked like dummies — they were so
quiet. They looked as if they were made of
wood and paper and then painted. In the
eyes of Poker Face was something faraway.

And Hot Dos the Tiger

In the eyes of Hot Dog was something hungry.
Whitson Whimble, the patent clothes wringer
manufacturer, came by in his big limousine
automobile car without horses to pull it. He
was sitting back on the leather upholstered seat
cushions.

"Stop here," he commanded the chauffeur
driving the car.

Then Whitson Whimble sat looking. First
he looked into the eyes of Poker Face the
Baboon and saw something faraway. Then he
looked into the eyes of Hot Dog the Tiger and
saw something hungry. Then he read the sign
painted by the Potato Face Blind Man saying,
"You look at 'em and see 'em ; I look at 'em and
I don't. You watch what their eyes say; I can
only feel their hair." Then Whitson Whimble
commanded the chauffeur driving the car, "Go
on."

Fifteen minutes later a man in overalls came
down Main Street with a wheelbarrow. He
stopped in front of the Potato Face Blind Man,

Poker Face the Baboon

Poker Face the Baboon, and Hot Dog the
Tiger.

"Where is the aluminum dishpan? " he asked.
"On my left side on the sidewalk," answered
the Potato Face Blind Man.

"Where is the galvanized iron washtub?"
"On my right side on the sidewalk."
Then the man in overalls took a shovel and
began shoveling silver dollars out of the wheel-
barrow into the aluminum dishpan and the gal-
vanized iron washtub. He shoveled out of the
wheelbarrow till the dishpan was full, till the
washtub was full. Then he put the shovel into
the wheelbarrow and went up Main Street.

Six o'clock that night Pick Ups came along.
The Potato Face Blind Man said to him, "I
have to carry home a heavy load of money to-
night, an aluminum dishpan full of silver dol-
lars and a galvanized iron washtub full of silver
dollars. So I ask you, will you take care of
Poker Face the Baboon and Hot Dog the
Tiger?"

And Hot Dog the Tiger

"Yes," said Pick Ups, "I will." And he did.
He tied a pink string to their legs and took
them home and put them in the woodshed.

Poker Face the Baboon went to sleep on the
soft coal at the north end of the woodshed
and when he was asleep his face had something
faraway in it and he was so quiet he looked like
a dummy with brown hair of the jungle painted
on his black skin and a black nose painted on
his brown face. Hot Dog the Tiger went to
sleep on the hard coal at the south end of the
woodshed and when he was asleep his eyelashes
had something hungry in them and he looked
like a painted dummy with black stripes
painted over his yellow belly and a black spot
painted away at the end of his long yellow tail.

In the morning the woodshed was empty.
Pick Ups told the Potato Face Blind Man,
"They left a note in their own handwriting on
perfumed pink paper. It said, 'Mascots never
stay long.' "

And that is why for many years the Potato

Poker Face the Baboon

Face Blind Man had silver dollars to spend —
and that is why many people in the Rootabaga
Country keep their eyes open for a Watermelon
Moon in the sky with a green rim and red meat
inside and black seeds making spots on the red
meat.

•"-f,

The Toboggan-to-the-Moon Dream of the
Potato Face Blind Man

One morning in October the Potato Face
Blind Man sat on the corner nearest the post-
office.

Any Ice Today came along and said, "This
is the sad time of the year/

"Sad? " asked the Potato Face Blind Man,
changing his accordion from his right knee to
his left knee, and singing softly to the tune he
was fumbling on the accordion keys, "Be
Happy in the Morning When the Birds Bring
the Beans/

"Yes," said Any Ice Today, "is it not sad

The Toboggan-to-the-Moon Dream

every year when the leaves change from green
to yellow, when the leaves dry on the branches
and fall into the air, and the wind blows them
and they make a song saying, cHush baby, hush
baby/ and the wind fills the sky with them and
they are like a sky full of birds who forget they
know any songs. 5:

"It is sad and not sad,): was the blind man's
word.

"Listen," said the Potato Face. "For me this
is the time of the year when the dream of the
white moon toboggan comes back. Five weeks
before the first snow flurry this dream always
comes back to me. It says, (The black leaves
are falling now and they fill the sky but five
weeks go by and then for every black leaf there
will be a thousand snow crystals shining
white.' "

"What was your dream of the white moon
toboggan?3 asked Any Ice Today.

"It came to me first when I was a boy, when
I had my eyes, before my luck changed. I saw

Of the Potato Face Blind Man

the big white spiders of the moon working,
rushing around climbing up, climbing down,
snizzling and sniff ering. I looked a long while
before I saw what the big white spiders on the
moon were doing. I saw after a while they
were weaving a long toboggan, a white tobog-
gan, white and soft as snow. And after a long
while of snizzling and sniffering, climbing up
and climbing down, at last the toboggan was
done, a snow white toboggan running from the
moon down to the Rootabaga Country.

"And sliding, sliding down from the moon
on this toboggan were the White Gold Boys
and the Blue Silver Girls. They tumbled down
at my feet because, you see, the toboggan ended
right at my feet. I could lean over and pick up
the White Gold Boys and the Blue Silver Girls
as they slid out of the toboggan at my feet. I
could pick up a whole handful of them and
hold them in my hand and talk with them.
Yet, you understand, whenever I tried to shut
my hand and keep any of them they would

The Toboggan-to-the~Moon Dream

snizzle and sniffer and jump out of the cracks
between my fingers. Once there was a little gold
and silver dust on my left hand thumb, dust
they snizzled out while slipping away from me.

"Once I heard a White Gold Boy and a Blue
Silver Girl whispering. They were standing
on the tip of my right hand little finger, whis-
pering. One said, CI got pumpkins — what did
you get?3 The other said, CI got hazel nuts.'
I listened more and I found out there are mil-
lions of pumpkins and millions of hazel nuts so
small you and I can not see them. These chil-
dren from the moon, however, they can see
them and whenever they slide down on the moon
toboggan they take back their pockets full of
things so little we have never seen them/

"They are wonderful children/' said Any
Ice Today. "And will you tell me how they get
back to the moon after they slide down the to-
boggan? "

"Oh, that is easy," said Potato Face. "It is
just as easy for them to slide up to the moon

Of the Potato Face Blind Man

as to slide down. Sliding up and sliding down
is the same for them. The big white spiders

fixed it that way when they snizzled and snif-
fered and made the toboggan."

How Gimme the Ax Found Out About
the Zigzag Railroad and Who Made

It Zigzag

One day Gimme the Ax said to himself, "To-
day I go to the postoffice and around, looking
around. Maybe I will hear about something
happening last night when I was sleeping.
Maybe a policeman began laughing and fell
in a cistern and came out with a wheelbarrow
full of goldfish wearing new jewelry. How do
I know? Maybe the man in the moon going
down a cellar stairs to get a pitcher of butter-
milk for the woman in the moon to drink and
stop crying, maybe he fell down the stairs and

How Gimme the Ax

broke the pitcher and laughed and picked up
the broken pieces and said to himself, cOne,
two, three, four, accidents happen in the best
regulated families. ' How do I know? 3

So with his mind full of simple and refresh-
ing thoughts. Gimme the Ax went out into the
backyard garden and looked at the different
necktie poppies growing early in the summer.
Then he picked one of the necktie poppies to
wear for a necktie scarf going downtown to
the postoffice and around looking around.

"It is a good speculation to look nice around
looking around in a necktie scarf," said Gimme
the Ax. "It is a necktie with a picture like
whitef ace pony spots on a green frog swimming
in the moonshine. ?:

So he went downtown. For the first time
he saw the Potato Face Blind Man playing
an accordion on the corner next nearest the
postoffice. He asked the Potato Face to tell
him why the railroad tracks run zigzag in the
Rootabaga Country.

Found Out About the Zigzag Railroad

"Long ago," said the Potato Face Blind
Man, "long before the necktie poppies began
growing in the backyard, long before there was
a necktie scarf like yours with whiteface pony
spots on a green frog swimming in the moon-
shine, back in the old days when they laid the
rails for the railroad they laid the rails
straight. r

"Then the zizzies came. The zizzy is a bug.
He runs zigzag on zigzag legs, eats zigzag with
zigzag teeth, and spits zigzag with a zigzag
tongue.

"Millions of zizzies came hizzing with little
hizzers on their heads and under their legs.
They jumped on the rails with their zigzag
legs, and spit and twisted with their zigzag
teeth and tongues till they twisted the whole
railroad and all the rails and tracks into a zig-
zag railroad with zigzag rails for the trains,
the passenger trains and the freight trains, all
to run zigzag on.

"Then the zizzies crept away into the fields

How Gimme the Ax

where they sleep and cover themselves with
zigzag blankets on special zigzag beds.

"Next day came shovelmen with their
shovels, smooth engineers with smooth blue
prints, and water boys with water pails and
water dippers for the shovelmen to drink after
shoveling the railroad straight. And I nearly
forgot to say the steam and hoist operating en-
gineers came and began their steam hoist and
operating to make the railroad straight.

"They worked hard. They made the rail-
road straight again. They looked at the job and
said to themselves and to each other, 'This is
it — we done it.'

"Next morning the zizzies opened their zig-
zag eyes and looked over to the railroad and the
rails. When they saw the railroad all straight
again, and the rails and the ties and the spikes
all straight again, the zizzies didn't even eat
breakfast that morning.

"They jumped out of their zigzag beds,

Found Out About the Zigzag Railroad

jumped onto the rails with their zigzag legs and
spit and twisted till they spit and twisted all
the rails and the ties and the spikes back into
a zigzag like the letter Z and the letter Z
at the end of the alphabet.

"After that the zizzies went to breakfast.
And they said to themselves and to each other,
the same as the shovelmen, the smooth engi-
neers and the steam hoist and operating engi-
neers, 'This is it — we done it.' "

"So that is the how of the which — it was
the zizzies," said Gimme the Ax.

"Yes, it was the zizzies,): said the Potato
Face Blind Man. "That is the story told

to me."

"Who told it to you? "

"Two little zizzies. They came to me one
cold winter night and slept in my accordion
where the music keeps it warm in winter. In
the morning I said, 'Good morning, zizzies, did
you have a good sleep last night and pleasant

How Gimme the Ax

dreams?3 And after they had breakfast they
told me the story. Both told it zigzag but it was
the same kind of zigzag each had together."

3. Three Stories About the
Gold Buckskin Whincher

People: Blixie Bimber

Peter Potato Blossom Wishes

Jimmie the Flea

Silas Baxby

Fritz Axenbax

James Sixbixdix

Jason Squiff, the Cistern Cleaner

Rags Habakuk, the Rag Man

Two Daughters of the Rag Man

Two Blue Rats

A Circus Man With Spot Cash

A Moving Picture Actor

A Taxicab Driver

The Story of Blixie Bimber and the Power
of the Gold Buckskin Whincher

Blixie Bimber grew up looking for luck. If
she found a horseshoe she took it home and
put it on the wall of her room with a ribbon tied
to it. She would look at the moon through her
fingers, under her arms, over her right shoulder
but never — never over her left shoulder. She
listened and picked up everything anybody said
about the ground hog ancl whether the ground
hog saw his shadow when he came out the sec-
ond of February.

If she dreamed of onions she knew the next
day she would find a silver spoon. If she
dreamed of fishes she knew the next day she

Story of Blixie Bimber and

would meet a strange man who would call her
by her first name. She grew up looking for
luck.

She was sixteen years old and quite a girl,
with her skirts down to her shoe tops, when
something happened. She was going to the
postoffice to see if there was a letter for
her from Peter Potato Blossom Wishes, her
best chum, or a letter from Jimmy the Flea,
her best friend she kept steady company with.

Jimmy the Flea was a climber. He climbed
skyscrapers and flagpoles and smokestacks and
was a famous steeplejack. Blixie Bimber liked
him because he was a steeplejack, a little, but
more because he was a whistler.

Every time Blixie said to Jimmy, "I got the
blues — whistle the blues out of me,'3 Jimmy
would just naturally whistle till the blues just
naturally went away from Blixie.

On the way to the postoffice, Blixie found
a gold buckskin whincher. There it lay in the
middle of the sidewalk. How and why it came

Power of Gold Buckskin Whincher

to be there she never knew and nobody ever told
her. "It's luck/: she said to herself as she
picked it up quick.

And so — she took it home and fixed it on
a little chain and wore it around her neck.

She did not know and nobody ever told her
a gold buckskin whincher is different from just
a plain common whincher. It has a power.
And if a thing has a power over you then you
just naturally can't help yourself.

So — around her neck fixed on a little chain
Blixie Bimber wore the gold buckskin whincher
and never knew it had a power and all the time
the power was working.

"The first man you meet with an X in his
name you must fall head over heels in love with
him/' said the silent power in the gold buckskin
whincher.

And that was why Blixie Bimber stopped
at the postoffice and went back again asking
the clerk at the postoffice window if he was
sure there wasn't a letter for her. The name

Story of Blixie Bimber and

of the clerk was Silas Baxby. For six weeks
he kept steady company with Blixie Bimber.
They went to dances, hayrack rides, picnics and
high jinks together.

All the time the power in the gold buckskin
whincher was working. It was hanging by a
little chain around her neck and always work-
ing. It was saying, "The next man you meet
with two X's in his name you must leave all
and fall head over heels in love with him/

She met the high school principal. His
name was Fritz Axenbax. Blixie dropped her
eyes before him and threw smiles at him. And
for six weeks he kept steady company with
Blixie Bimber. They went to dances, hayrack
rides, picnics and high jinks together.

"Why do you go with him for steady com-
pany?3 her relatives asked.

"It's a power he's got,':> Blixie answered, "I
just can't help it — it's a power."

"One of his feet is bigger than the other —

Power of Gold Buckskin Whincher

how can you keep steady company with him?"
they asked again.

All she would answer was, "It's a power."

All the time, of course, the gold buckskin
whincher on the little chain around her neck
was working. It was saying, "If she meets a
man with three X's in his name she must fall
head over heels in love with him."

At a band concert in the public square one
night she met James Sixbixdix. There was
no helping it. She dropped her eyes and threw
her smiles at him. And for six weeks they
kept steady company going to band concerts,
dances, hayrack rides, picnics and high jinks
together.

"Why do you keep steady company with
him? He's a musical soup eater," her rela-
tives said to her. And she answered, "It's a
power — I can't help myself."

Leaning down with her head in a rain water
cistern one day, listening to the echoes against

Story of Blixie Bimber

the strange wooden walls of the cistern, the gold
buckskin whincher on the little chain around
her neck slipped off and fell down into the rain
water.

"My luck is gone," said Blixie. Then she
went into the house and made two telephone
calls. One was to James Sixbixdix telling him
she couldn't keep the date with him that night.
The other was to Jimmy the Flea, the climber,
the steeplejack.

"Come on over — I got the blues and I want
you to whistle 'em away,': was what she tele-
phoned Jimmy the Flea.

And so — if you ever come across a gold buck-
skin whincher, be careful. It's got a power.
It'll make you fall head over heels in love with
the next man you meet with an X in his name.
Or it will do other strange things because dif-
ferent whinchers have different powers.

The Story of Jason Squiff and Why He

Had a Popcorn Hat, Popcorn Mittens

and Popcorn Shoes

Jason Squiff was a cistern cleaner. He had
greenish yellowish hair. If you looked down
into a cistern when he was lifting buckets of
slush and mud you could tell where he was^
you could pick him out down in the dark cistern,
by the lights of his greenish yellowish hair.

Sometimes the buckets of slush and mud
tipped over and ran down on the top of his head.
This covered his greenish yellowish hair. And
then it was hard to tell where he was and it was

The Story of Jason Squiff's

not easy to pick him out down in the dark where
he was cleaning the cistern.

One day Jason Squiff came to the Bimber
house and knocked on the door.

"Did I understand/' he said, speaking to
Mrs. Bimber, Blixie Bimber's mother, "do I
understand you sent for me to clean the cistern
in your back yard? "

"You understand exactly such," said Mrs.
Bimber, "and you are welcome as the flowers
that bloom in the spring, tra-la-la.>:

"Then I will go to work and clean the cis-
tern, tra-la-la," he answered, speaking to Mrs.
Bimber. "Pm the guy, tra-la-la," he said fur-
ther, running his excellent fingers through his
greenish yellowish hair which was shining
brightly.

He began cleaning the cistern. Blixie Bim-
ber came out in the back yard. She looked
down in the cistern. It was all dark. It looked
like nothing but all dark down there. By and
by she saw something greenish yellowish. She

Popcorn Hat, Mittens and Shoes

watched it. Soon she saw it was Jason SquifPs
head and hair. And then she knew the cistern
was being cleaned and Jason Squiff was on the
job. So she sang tra-la-la and went back into
the house and told her mother Jason Squiff was
on the job.

The last bucketful of slush and mud came
at last for Jason Squiff. He squinted at the
bottom. Something was shining. He reached
his fingers down through the slush and mud
and took out what was shining.

It was the gold buckskin whincher Blixie
Bimber lost from the gold chain around her
neck the week before when she was looking
down into the cistern to see what she could see.
It was exactly the same gold buckskin whincher
shining and glittering like a sign of happiness.

"It's luck," said Jason Squiff, wiping his
fingers on his greenish yellowish hair. Then
he put the gold buckskin whincher in his vest
pocket and spoke to himself again, "It's luck.':

A little after six o'clock that night Jason

The Story of Jason Squiff's

SquifT stepped into his house and home and said
hello to his wife and daughters. They all be-
gan to laugh. Their laughter was a ticklish
laughter.

"Something funny is happening/5 he said.

"And you are it/' they all laughed at him
again with ticklish laughter.

Then they showed him. His hat was pop-
corn, his mittens popcorn and his shoes popcorn.
He didn't know the gold buckskin whincher
had a power and was working all the time. He
didn't know the whincher in his vest pocket
was saying, "You have a letter Q in your name
and because you have the pleasure and happi-
ness of having a Q in your name you must have
a popcorn hat, popcorn mittens and popcorn
shoes.51

The next morning he put on another hat,
another pair of mittens and another pair of
shoes. And the minute he put them on they
changed to popcorn.

So he tried on all his hats, mittens and shoes.

His hat was popcorn, his mittens popcorn and his

shoes popcorn

Popcorn Hat, Mittens and Shoes

Always they changed to popcorn the minute he
had them on.

He went downtown to the stores. He bought
a new hat, mittens and shoes. And the
minute he had them on they changed to pop-
corn.

So he decided he would go to work and clean
cisterns with his popcorn hat, popcorn mittens
and popcorn shoes on.

The people of the Village of Cream Puffs
enjoyed watching him walk up the street, going
to clean cisterns. People five and six blocks
away could see him coming and going with his
popcorn hat, popcorn mittens and popcorn
shoes.

When he was down in a cistern the children
enjoyed looking down into the cistern to see
him work. When none of the slush and mud
fell on his hat and mittens he was easy to find.
The light of the shining popcorn lit up the
whole inside of the cistern.

Sometimes, of course, the white popcorn got

The Story of Jason S quiff's

full of black slush and black mud. And then
when Jason Squiff came up and walked home
he was not quite so dazzling to look at.

It was a funny winter for Jason Squiff.

"It's a crime, a dirty crime/'1 he said to him-
self. "Now I can never be alone with my
thoughts. Everybody looks at me when I go
up the street. r

"If I meet a funeral even the pall bearers
begin to laugh at my popcorn hat. If I meet
people going to a wedding they throw all the
rice at me as if I am a bride and a groom all
together.

"The horses try to eat my hat wherever I go.
Three hats I have fed to horses this winter.

"And if I accidentally drop one of my mit-
tens the chickens eat it/

Then Jason Squiff began to change. He be-
came proud.

"I always wanted a white beautiful hat like
this white popcorn hat," he said to himself.

Popcorn Hat, Mittens and Shoes

"And I always wanted white beautiful mittens
and white beautiful shoes like these white pop-
corn mittens and shoes. >:

When the boys yelled, "Snow man! yah-de-
dah-de-dah, Snow man!5 he just waved his
hand to them with an upward gesture of his
arm to show he was proud of how he looked.

"They all watch for me," he said to himself,
"I am distinquished — am I not? : } he asked him-
self.

And he put his right hand into his left hand
and shook hands with himself and said, "You
certainly look fixed up."

One day he decided to throw away his vest.
In the vest pocket was the gold buckskin
whincher, with the power working, the power
saying, "You have a letter Q in your name and
because you have the pleasure and happiness
of having a Q in your name you must have a
popcorn hat, popcorn mittens and popcorn
shoes.':

The Story of Jason Squiff

Yes, he threw away the vest. He forgot all
about the gold buckskin whincher being in the
vest.

He just handed the vest to a rag man. And
the rag man put the vest with the gold buckskin
whincher in a bag on his back and walked away.

After that Jason Squiff was like other people.
His hats would never change to popcorn nor his
mittens to popcorn nor his shoes to popcorn.

And when anybody looked at him down in
a cistern cleaning the cistern or when anybody
saw him walking along the street they knew
him by his greenish yellowish hair which was
always full of bright lights.

And so — if you have a Q in your name, be
careful if you ever come across a gold buckskin
whincher. Remember different whinchers
have different powers.

The Story of Rags Habakuk, the Two

Blue Rats, and the Circus Man Who
Came with Spot Cash Money

Rags Habakuk was going home. His day's
work was done. The sun was down. Street
lamps began shining. Burglars were starting
on their night's work. It was no time for an
honest ragman to be knocking on people's back
doors, saying, "Any ragsr or else saying,
"Any rags? any bottles? any bones?5 or else
saying "Any rags? any bottles? any bones? any
old iron? any copper, brass, old shoes all run
down and no good to anybody to-day? any old

Story of Rags Habakuk, the Two

clothes, old coats, pants, vests? I take any old
clothes you got.':

Yes, Rags Habakuk was going home. In the
gunnysack bag on his back, humped up on top
of the rag humps in the bag, was an old vest. It
was the same old vest Jason SquifT threw out
of a door at Rags Habakuk. In the pocket of
the vest was the gold buckskin whincher with
a power in it.

Well, Rags Habakuk got home just like al-
ways, sat down to supper and smacked his mouth
and had a big supper of fish, just like always.
Then he went out to a shanty in the back yard
and opened up the gunnysack rag bag and fixed
things out classified just like every day when
he came home he opened the gunnysack bag
and fixed things out classified.

The last thing of all he fixed out classified
was the vest with the gold buckskin whincher
in the pocket. "Put it on — it's a glad rag,"
he said, looking at the vest. "It's a lucky vest."
So he put his right arm in the right armhole and

Blue Rats and the Circus Man

his left arm in the left armhole. And there he
was with his arms in the armholes of the old
vest all fixed out classified new.

Next morning Rags Habakuk kissed his
wife g'by and his eighteen year old girl g'by
and his nineteen year old girl g'by. He kissed
them just like he always kissed them — in a
hurry — and as he kissed each one he said, "I
will be back soon if not sooner and when I come
back I will return/

Yes, up the street went Rags Habakuk. And
soon as he left home something happened.
Standing on his right shoulder was a blue rat
and standing on his left shoulder was a blue
rat. The only way he knew they were there
was by looking at them.

There they were, close to his ears. He could
feel the far edge of their whiskers against his
ears.

"This never happened to me before all the
time I been picking rags," he said. "Two blue
rats stand by my ears and never say anything

Story of Rags Habakuk, the Two

even if they know I am listening to anything
they tell me.':

So Rags Habakuk walked on two blocks,
three blocks, four blocks, squinting with his
right eye slanting at the blue rat on his right
shoulder and squinting with his left eye slant-
ing at the blue rat on his left shoulder.

"If I stood on somebody's shoulder with my
whiskers right up in somebody's ear I would
say something for somebody to listen to," he
muttered.

Of course, he did not understand it was the
gold buckskin whincher and the power work-
ing. Down in the pocket of the vest he had
on, the gold buckskin whincher power was
saying, "Because you have two K's in your
name you must have two blue rats on your
shoulders, one blue rat for your right ear, one
blue rat for your left ear/

It was good business. Never before did
Rags Habakuk get so much old rags.

Blue Rats and the Circus Man

"Come again — you and your lucky blue
rats/5 people said to him. They dug into their
cellars and garrets and brought him bottles and
bones and copper and brass and old shoes and
old clothes, coats, pants, vests.

Every morning when he went up the street
with the two blue rats on his shoulders, blink-
ing their eyes straight ahead and chewing their
whiskers so they sometimes tickled the ears of
old Rags Habakuk, sometimes women came
running out on the front porch to look at him
and say, "Well, if he isn't a queer old mysteri-
ous ragman and if those ain't queer old mys-
terious blue rats!'

All the time the gold buckskin whincher and
the power was working. It was saying, "So
long as old Rags Habakuk keeps the two blue
rats he shall have good luck — but if he ever
sells one of the blue rats then one of his daugh-
ters shall marry a taxicab driver — and if he
ever sells the other blue rat then his other

Story of Rags Habakuk, the Two
daughter shall marry a moving-picture hero

actor."

Then terrible things happened. A circus
man came. "I give you one thousand dollars
spot cash money for one of the blue rats,53 he
expostulated with his mouth. "And I give you
two thousand dollars spot cash money for the
two of the blue rats both of them together/

"Show me how much spot cash money two
thousand dollars is all counted out in one pile
for one man to carry away home in his gunny-
sack rag bag/: was the answer of Rags Haba-
kuk.

The circus man went to the bank and came
back with spot cash greenbacks money.

"This spot cash greenbacks money is made
from the finest silk rags printed by the national
government for the national republic to make
business rich and prosperous/' said the circus
man, expostulating with his mouth.

"T-h-e f-i-n-e-s-t s-i-l-k r-a-g-s/: he ex-

Blue Rats and the Circus Man

postulated again holding two fingers under the
nose of Rags Habakuk.

"I take it," said Rags Habakuk, "I take it.
It is a whole gunnysack bag full of spot cash
greenbacks money. I tell my wife it is printed
by the national government for the national re-
public to make business rich and prosper-

ous."

Then he kissed the blue rats, one on the
right ear, the other on the left ear, and handed
them over to the circus man.

And that was why the next month his eigh-
teen year old daughter married a taxicab driver
who was so polite all the time to his customers
that he never had time to be polite to his wife.

And that was why his nineteen year old
daughter married a moving-picture hero actor
who worked so hard being nice and kind in the
moving pictures that he never had enough left
over for his wife when he got home after the
day's work.

The Story of Rags Habakuk

And the lucky vest with the gold buckskin
whincher was stolen from Rags Habakuk by
the taxicab driver.

4. Four Stories About the Deep
Doom of Dark Doorways

People: The Rag Doll

The Broom Handle
Spoon Lickers
Chocolate Chins
Dirty Bibs
Tin Pan Bangers
Clean Ears
Easy Ticklers
Musical Soup Eaters
Chubby Chubs
Sleepy Heads

Snoo Foo

Blink, Swink and Jink
Blunk, Swunk and Junk
Missus Sniggers

Eeta Peeca Pie
Meeny Miney
Miney Mo

A Potato Bug Millionaire

Bimbo the Snip

Bevo the Hike

A Ward Alderman

A Barn Boss

A Weather Man

A Traffic Policeman

A Monkey

A Widow Woman

An Umbrella Handle Maker

The Wedding Procession of the Rag Doll
and the Broom Handle and Who Was in It

The Rag Doll had many friends. The
Whisk Broom, the Furnace Shovel, the Coffee
Pot, they all liked the Rag Doll very much.

But when the Rag Doll married, it was the
Broom Handle she picked because the Broom
Handle fixed her eyes.

A proud child, proud but careless, banged the
head of the Rag Doll against a door one day
and knocked off both the glass eyes sewed on

Wedding Procession of the Rag Doll

long ago. It was then the Broom Handle found
two black California prunes, and fastened the
two California prunes just where the eyes be-
longed. So then the Rag Doll had two fine
black eyes brand new. She was even nick-
named Black Eyes by some people.

There was a wedding when the Rag Doll
married the Broom Handle. It was a grand
wedding with one of the grandest processions
ever seen at a rag doll wedding. And we are
sure no broom handle ever had a grander wed-
ding procession when he got married.

Who marched in the procession? Well, first
came the Spoon Lickers. Every one of them
had a tea spoon, or a soup spoon, though most
of them had a big table spoon. On the spoons,
what did they have? Oh, some had butter
scotch, some had gravy, some had marshmallow
fudge. Every one had something slickery sweet
or fat to eat on the spoon. And as they marched
in the wedding procession of the Rag Doll and
the Broom Handle, they licked their spoons and

100

And Broom Handle and Who Was in It

looked around and licked their spoons again.

Next came the Tin Pan Bangers. Some had
dishpans, some had frying pans, some had po-
tato peeling pans. All the pans were tin with
tight tin bottoms. And the Tin Pan Bangers
banged with knives and forks and iron and
wooden bangers on the bottoms of the tin pans.
And as they marched in the wedding procession
of the Rag Doll and the Broom Handle they
banged their pans and looked around and
banged again.

Then came the Chocolate Chins. They were
all eating chocolates. And the chocolate was
slippery and slickered all over their chins.
Some of them spattered the ends of their noses
with black chocolate. Some of them spread
the brown chocolate nearly up to their ears.
And then as they marched in the wedding pro-
cession of the Rag Doll and the Broom Handle
they stuck their chins in the air and looked
around and stuck their chins in the air again.

Then came the Dirty Bibs. They wore plain

101

Wedding Procession of the Rag Doll

white bibs, checker bibs, stripe bibs, blue bibs

and bibs with butterflies. But all the bibs were
dirty. The plain white bibs were dirty, the

checker bibs were dirty, the stripe bibs, the blue
bibs and the bibs with butterflies on them, they
were all dirty. And so in the wedding proces-
sion of the Rag Doll and the Broom Handle^
the Dirty Bibs marched with their dirty fingers
on the bibs and they looked around and laughed
and looked around and laughed again.

Next came the Clean Ears. They were
proud. How they got into the procession no-
body knows. Their ears were all clean. They
were clean not only on the outside but they
were clean on the inside. There was not a
speck of dirt or dust or muss or mess on the
inside nor the outside of their ears. And so
in the wedding procession of the Rag Doll
and the Broom Handle, they wiggled their ears
and looked around and wiggled their ears again.

The Easy Ticklers were next in the proces-
sion. Their faces were shining. Their cheeks

1 02

And Broom Handle and Who Was in It

were like bars of new soap. Their ribs were
strong and the meat and the fat was thick on
their ribs. It was plain to see they were saying,
"Don't tickle me because I tickle so easy."
And as they marched in the wedding procession
of the Rag Doll and the Broom Handle, they
tickled themselves and laughed and looked
around and tickled themselves again.

The music was furnished mostly by the
Musical Soup Eaters. They marched with big
bowls of soup in front of them and big spoons
for eating the soup. They whistled and
chuzzled and snozzled the soup and the noise
they made could be heard far up at the head
of the procession where the Spoon Lickers were
marching. So they dipped their soup and
looked around and dipped their soup again.

The Chubby Chubs were next. They were
roly poly, round faced smackers and snoozers.
They were not fat babies — oh no, oh no — not
fat but just chubby and easy to squeeze. They
marched on their chubby legs and chubby feet

103

Wedding Procession of the Rag Doll

and chubbed their chubbs and looked around
and chubbed their chubbs again.

The last of all in the wedding procession of
the Rag Doll and the Broom Handle were the
Sleepyheads. They were smiling and glad to
be marching but their heads were slimpsing
down and their smiles were half fading away
and their eyes were half shut or a little more
than half shut. They staggered just a little
as though their feet were not sure where they
were going. They were the Sleepyheads, the
last of all, in the wedding procession of the
Rag Doll and the Broom Handle and the
Sleepyheads they never looked around at all.

It 'was a grand procession, don't you think

S0?j

104

How the Hat Ashes Shovel Helped Snoo

Foo

If you want to remember the names of all
six of the Sniggers children, remember that
the three biggest were named Blink, Swink and
Jink but the three littlest ones were named
Blunk, Swunk and Junk. One day last January
the three biggest had a fuss with the three lit-
tlest. The fuss was about a new hat for Snoo
Foo, the snow man, about what kind of a hat
he should wear and how he should wear it.
Blink, Swink and Jink said, "He wants a

105

How the Hat Ashes

crooked hat put on straight.' Blunk, Swunk
and Junk said, "He wants a straight hat put
on crooked.5 They fussed and fussed. Blink
fussed with Blunk, Swink fussed with Swunk,
and Jink fussed with Junk. The first ones to
make up after the fuss were Jink and Junk.
They decided the best way to settle the fuss.
"Let's put a crooked hat on crooked/' said Jink.
"No, let's put a straight hat on straight, ': said
Junk. Then they stood looking and looking
into each other's shiny laughing eyes and then
both of them exploded to each other at the same
time, "Let's put on two hats, a crooked hat
crooked and a straight hat straight."

Well, they looked around for hats. But
there were not any hats anywhere, that is, no
hats big enough for a snow man with a big head
like Snoo Foo. So they went in the house and
asked their mother for the hat ashes shovel.
Of course, in most any other house, the mother
would be all worried if six children came
tramping and clomping in, banging the door

1 06

Shovel Helped Snoo Foo

and all six ejaculating to their mother at once,
"Where is the hat ashes shovel ?: But Missus
Sniggers wasn't worried at all. She rubbed her
chin with her finger and said softly, "Oh lah
de dah, oh lah de dah, where is that hat ashes
shovel, last week I had it when I was making
a hat for Mister Sniggers; I remember I had
that hat ashes shovel right up here over the
clock, oh lah de dah, oh lah de dah. Go out and
ring the front door bell," she said to Jink Snig-
gers. Jink ran away to the front door. And
Missus Sniggers and the five children waited.
Bling-bling the bell began ringing and — listen
— the door of the clock opened and the hat ashes
shovel fell out. "Oh lah de dah, get out of
here in a hurry," said Missus Sniggers.

Well, the children ran out and dug a big pail
of hat ashes with the hat ashes shovel. And
they made two hats for Snoo Foo. One was a
crooked hat. The other was a straight hat.
And they put the crooked hat on crooked and
the straight hat on straight. And there stood

107

How Snoo Foo Was Helped

Snoo Foo in the front yard and everybody who
came by on the street, he would take off his
hat to them, the crooked hat with his arm
crooked and the straight hat with his arm
straight. That was the end of the fuss between
the Sniggers children and it was Jink, the littlest
one of the biggest, and Junk, the littlest one
of the littlest, who settled the fuss by looking
clean into each other's eyes and laughing. If
you ever get into a fuss try this way of settling
it.

1 08

Three Boys With Jugs of Molasses and

Secret Ambitions

In the Village of Liver-and-Onions, if one
boy goes to the grocery for a jug of molasses
it is just like always. And if two boys go to
the grocery for a jug of molasses together it
is just like always. But if three boys go to the
grocery for a jug of molasses each and all to-
gether then it is not like always at all, at all.

Eeta Peeca Pie grew up with wishes and
wishes working inside him. And for every
wish inside him he had a freckle outside on his
face. Whenever he smiled the smile ran way

109

Three Boys with Jugs of

back into the far side of his face and got lost
in the wishing freckles.

Meeny Miney grew up with suspicions and
suspicions working inside him. And after a
while some of the suspicions got fastened on
his eyes and some of the suspicions got fas-
tened on his mouth. So when he looked at
other people straight in the face they used
to say, "Meeny Miney looks so sad-like I won-
der if he'll get by."

Miney Mo was different. He wasn't sad-
like and suspicious like Meeny Miney. Nor
was he full of wishes inside and freckles out-
side like Eeta Peeca Pie. He was all mixed up
inside with wishes and suspicions. So he had
a few freckles and a few suspicions on his face.
When he looked other people straight in the
face they used to say, "I don't know whether
to laugh or cry.':

So here we have 'em, three boys growing up
with wishes, suspicions and mixed-up wishes
and suspicions. They all looked different from

Molasses and Secret Ambitions

each other. Each one, however, had a secret
ambition. And all three had the same secret
ambition.

An ambition is a little creeper that creeps
and creeps in your heart night and day, singing
a little song, "Come and find me, come and
find me/

The secret ambition in the heart of Eeta
Peeca Pie, Meeney Miney, and Miney Mo was
an ambition to go railroading, to ride on rail-
road cars night and day, year after year. The
whistles and the wheels of railroad trains were
music to them.

Whenever the secret ambition crept in their
hearts and made them too sad, so sad it was
hard to live and stand for it, they would all
three put their hands on each other's shoulder
and sing the song of Joe. The chorus was like

this:

Joe, Joe, broke his toe,
On the way to Mexico.
Came back, broke his back,
Sliding on the railroad track.
Ill

Three Boys with Jugs of

One fine summer morning all three mothers
of all three boys gave each one a jug and said,
"Go to the grocery and get a jug of molasses. >:
All three got to the grocery at the same time.
And all three went out of the door of the gro-
cery together, each with a jug of molasses to-
gether and each with his secret ambition creep-
ing around in his heart, all three together.

Two blocks from the grocery they stopped
under a slippery elm tree. Eeta Peeca Pie was
stretching his neck looking straight up into the
slippery elm tree. He said it was always good
for his freckles and it helped his wishes to stand
under a slippery elm and look up.

While he was looking up his left hand let go
the jug handle of the jug of molasses. And the
jug went ka-flump, ka-flumpety-flump down on
the stone sidewalk, cracked to pieces and let
the molasses go running out over the side-
walk.

If you have never seen it, let me tell you mo-
lasses running out of a broken jug, over a stone

112

They stepped into the molasses with their bare feet

Molasses and Secret Ambitions

sidewalk under a slippery elm tree, looks pe-
culiar and mysterious.

Eeta Peeca Pie stepped into the molasses with
his bare feet. "It's a lotta fun,'; he said. "It
tickles all over.': So Meeney Miney and Miney
Mo both stepped into the molasses with their
bare feet.

Then what happened just happened. One
got littler. Another got littler. All three got
littler.

"You look to me only big as a potato bug,"
said Eeta Peeca Pie to Meeney Miney and
Miney Mo. "It's the same like you look to us,':
said Meeney Miney and Miney Mo to Eeta
Peeca Pie. And then because their secret am-
bition began to hurt them they all stood with
hands on each other's shoulders and sang the
Mexico Joe song.

Off the sidewalk they strolled, across a field
of grass. They passed many houses of spiders
and ants. In front of one house they saw Mrs.

115

Three Boys with Jugs of

Spider over a tub washing clothes for Mr.
Spider.

"Why do you wear that frying pan on your
head?3 they asked her.

"In this country all ladies wear the frying
pan on their head when they want a hat."

"But what if you want a hat when you are
frying with the frying pan? " asked Eeta Peeca
Pie.

"That never happens to any respectable lady
in this country."

"Don't you never have no new style hats?"
asked Meeney Miney.

"No, but we always have new style frying
pans every spring and fall/

Hidden in the roots of a pink grass clump,
they came to a city of twisted-nose spiders. On
the main street was a store with a show window
full of pink parasols. They walked in and said
to the clerk, "We want to buy parasols. y

"We don't sell parasols here," said the spider
clerk.

116

Molasses and Secret Ambitions

"Well, lend us a parasol apiece/5 said all
three.

"Gladly, most gladly/5 said the clerk.

"How do you do it?55 asked Eeta.

"I don't have to/5 answered the spider clerk.

"How did it begin?55

"It never was otherwise. 5:

"Don5t you never get tired? 3

"Every parasol is a joy.5:

"What do you do when the parasols are
gone?5

"They always come back. These are the
famous twisted-nose parasols made from the
famous pink grass. You will lose them all,
all three. Then they will all walk back to me
here in this store on main street. I can not sell
you something I know you will surely lose.
Neither can I ask you to pay, for something
you will forget, somewhere sometime, and
when you forget it, it will walk back here to
me again. Look — look!5

As he said "Look,55 the door opened and five

117

Three Boys with Jugs of

pink parasols came waltzing in and waltzed up
into the show window.

"They always come back. Everybody for-
gets. Take your parasols and go. You will
forget them and they will come back to me/

"He looks like he had wishes inside him/:
said Eeta Peeca Pie.

"He looks like he had suspicions/' said
Meeney Miney.

"He looks like he was all mixed up wishes
and suspicions/'1 said Miney Mo.

And once more because they all felt lone-
some and their secret ambitions were creeping
and eating, they put their hands on their shoul-
ders and sang the Mexico Joe song.

Then came happiness. They entered the
Potato Bug Country. And they had luck first
of all the first hour they were in the Potato
Bug Country. They met a Potato Bug mil-
lionaire.

"How are you a millionaire?5 they asked
him.

118

Molasses and Secret Ambitions

"Because I got a million," he answered.

"A million what?"

"A million fleems."

"Who wants fleems?"

"You want fleems if you're going to live
here."

"Why so?"

"Because fleems is our money. In the Potato
Bug Country, if you got no fleems you can't
buy nothing nor anything. But if you got a
million fleems you're a Potato Bug millionaire."

Then he surprised them.

"I like you because you got wishes and
freckles," he said to Eeta Peeca Pie, filling
the pockets of Eeta with fleems.

"And I like you because you got suspicions
and you're sad-like," he said to Meeney Miney
filling Meeney Miney's pockets full of fleems.

"And I like you because you got some wishes
and some suspicions and you look mixed up," he
said to Miney Mo, sticking handfuls and hand-
fuls of fleems into the pockets of Miney Mo.

119

Three Boys with Jugs of

Wishes do come true. And suspicions do
come true. Here they had been wishing all
their lives, and had suspicions of what was go-
ing to happen, and now it all came true.

With their pockets filled with fleems they
rode on all the railroad trains of the Potato
Bug Country. They went to the railroad sta-
tions and bought tickets for the fast trains and
the slow trains and even the trains that back
up and run backward instead of where they
start to go.

On the dining cars of the railroads of the
Potato Bug Country they ate wonder ham from
the famous Potato Bug Pigs, eggs from the Po-
tato Bug Hens, et cetera.

It seemed to them they stayed a long while
in the Potato Bug Country, years and years.

Yes, the time came when all their fleems were
gone. Then whenever they wanted a railroad
ride or something to eat or a place to sleep, they
put their hands on each other's shoulders and
sang the Mexico Joe song. In the Potato Bug

1 20

Molasses and Secret Ambitions

Country they all said the Mexico Joe song was
wonderful.

One morning while they were waiting to
take an express train on the Early Ohio &
Southwestern they sat near the roots of a big
potato plant under the big green leaves. And
far above them they saw a dim black cloud and
they heard a shaking and a rustling and a spat-
tering. They did not know it was a man of
the Village of Liver-and-Onions. They did
not know it was Mr. Sniggers putting paris
green on the potato plants.

A big drop of paris green spattered down and
fell onto the heads and shoulders of all three,
Eeta Peeca Pie, Meeny Miney and Miney Mo.

Then what happened just happened. They
got bigger and bigger — one, two, three. And
when they jumped up and ran out of the potato
rows, Mr. Sniggers thought they were boys
playing tricks.

When they got home to their mothers and
told all about the jug of molasses breaking on

121

Story of Three Boys

the stone sidewalk under the slippery elm tree,
their mothers said it was careless. The boys
said it was lucky because it helped them get
their secret ambitions.

And a secret ambition is a little creeper that
creeps and creeps in your heart night and day,
singing a little song, "Come and find me, come
and find me."

122

How Bimbo the Snip's Thumb Stuck to
His Nose When the Wind Changed

Once there was a boy in the Village of Liver-
and-Onions whose name was Bimbo the Snip.
He forgot nearly everything his father and
mother told him to do and told him not to do.

One day his father, Bevo the Hike, came
home and found Bimbo the Snip sitting on the
front steps with his thumb fastened to his nose
and the fingers wiggling.

"I can't take my thumb away," said Bimbo
the Snip, "because when I put my thumb to my
nose and wiggled my fingers at the iceman the

123

How Bimbo the Snip's Thumb Stuck to

wind changed. And just like mother always
said, if the wind changed the thumb would stay
fastened to my nose and not come off.':

Bevo the Hike took hold of the thumb and
pulled. He tied a clothes line rope around it
and pulled. He pushed with his foot and heel
against it. And all the time the thumb stuck
fast and the fingers wiggled from the end of
the nose of Bimbo the Snip.

Bevo the Hike sent for the ward alderman.
The ward alderman sent for the barn boss of
the street cleaning department. The barn boss
of the street cleaning department sent for the
head vaccinator of the vaccination bureau of the
health department. The head vaccinator of the
vaccination bureau of the health department
sent for the big main fixer of the weather bu-
reau where they understand the tricks of the
wind and the wind changing.

And the big main fixer of the weather bu-
reau said, "If you hit the thumb six times with

124

His Nose When the Wind Changed

the end of a traffic policeman's club, the thumb
will come loose/

So Bevo the Hike went to a traffic police-
man standing on a street corner with a whistle
telling the wagons and cars which way to

go-
He told the traffic policeman, "The wind

changed and Bimbo the Snip's thumb is fas-
tened to his nose and will not come loose till
it is hit six times with the end of a traffic po-
liceman's club.':

"I can't help you unless you find a monkey
to take my place standing on the corner tell-
ing the wagons and cars which way to go,':
answered the traffic policeman.

So Bevo the Hike went to the zoo and said
to a monkey, "The wind changed and Bimbo
the Snip's thumb is fastened to his nose and will
not come loose till it is hit with the end of a
traffic policeman's club six times and the traffic
policeman cannot leave his place on the street

125

How Bimbo the Snip's Thumb Stuck to

corner telling the traffic which way to go unless
a monkey comes and takes his place. r

The monkey answered, "Get me a ladder
with a whistle so I can climb up and whistle
and tell the traffic which way to go.?:

So Bevo the Hike hunted and hunted over
the city and looked and looked and asked and
asked till his feet and his eyes and his head and
his heart were tired from top to bottom.

Then he met an old widow woman whose
husband had been killed in a sewer explosion
when he was digging sewer ditches. And the
old woman was carrying a bundle of picked-up
kindling wood in a bag on her back because she
did not have money enough to buy coal.

Bevo the Hike told her, "You have troubles.
So have I. You are carrying a load on your
back people can see. I am carrying a load and
nobody sees it.':

"Tell me your troubles," said the old widow
woman. He told her. And she said, "In the

next block is an old umbrella handle maker.

126

His Nose When the Wind Changed

He has a ladder with a whistle. He climbs on
the ladder when he makes long long umbrella
handles. And he has the whistle on the ladder
to be whistling.31

Bevo the Hike went to the next block, found
the house of the umbrella handle maker and
said to him, "The wind changed and Bimbo
the Snip's thumb is fastened to his nose and
will not come loose till it is hit with the end
of a traffic policeman's club six times and the
traffic policeman cannot leave the corner where
he is telling the traffic which way to go unless
a monkey takes his place and the monkey can-
not take his place unless he has a ladder with
a whistle to stand on and whistle the wagons
and cars which way to go."

Then the umbrella handle maker said, "To-
night I have a special job because I must work
on a long, long umbrella handle and I will need
the ladder to climb up and the whistle to be
whistling. But if you promise to have the lad-
der back by to-night you can take it."

127

Bimbo the Snip's Thumb

Bevo the Hike promised. Then he took the
ladder with a whistle to the monkey, the mon-
key took the place of the traffic policeman while
the traffic policeman went to the home of Bevo
the Hike where Bimbo the Snip was sitting on
the front steps with his thumb fastened to his
nose wiggling his fingers at everybody passing
by on the street.

The traffic policeman hit Bimbo the Snip's
thumb five times with the club. And the
thumb stuck fast. But the sixth time it was
hit with the end of the traffic policeman's thumb
club, it came loose.

Then Bevo thanked the policeman, thanked
the monkey, and took the ladder with the
whistle back to the umbrella handle maker's
house and thanked him.

When Bevo the Hike got home that night
Bimbo the Snip was in bed and all tickled. He
said to his father, "I will be careful how I stick
my thumb to my nose and wiggle my fingers
the next time the wind changes."

128

The monkey took the place of the traffic policeman

5. Three Stories About Three
Ways the Wind Went Winding

People: Two Skyscrapers

The Northwest Wind

The Golden Spike Limited

Train

A Tin Brass Goat
A Tin Brass Goose
Newsies

Young Leather

Red Slippers

A Man to be Hanged

Five Jackrabbits

The Wooden Indian
The Shaghorn Buffalo
The Night Policeman

The Two Skyscrapers Who Decided to

Have a Child

Two skyscrapers stood across the street from
each other in the Village of Liver-and-Onions.
In the daylight when the streets poured full
of people buying and selling, these two sky-
scrapers talked with each other the same as
mountains talk.

In the night time when all the people buying
and selling were gone home and there were only
policemen and taxicab drivers on the streets, in
the night when a mist crept up the streets and

133

The Two Skyscrapers Who

threw a purple and gray wrapper over every-
thing, in the night when the stars and the sky
shook out sheets of purple and gray mist down
over the town, then the two skyscrapers leaned
toward each other and whispered.

Whether they whispered secrets to each other
or whether they whispered simple things that
you and I know and everybody knows, that is
their secret. One thing is sure : they often were
seen leaning toward each other and whispering
in the night the same as mountains lean and
whisper in the night.

High on the roof of one of the skyscrapers
was a tin brass goat looking out across prairies,
and silver blue lakes shining like blue porcelain
breakfast plates, and out across silver snakes
of winding rivers in the morning sun. And
high on the roof of the other skyscraper was a
tin brass goose looking out across prairies, and
silver blue lakes shining like blue porcelain
breakfast plates, and out across silver snakes
of winding rivers in the morning sun.

134

Decided to Have a Child

Now the Northwest Wind was a friend of
the two skyscrapers. Coming so far, coming
five hundred miles in a few hours, coming so
fast always while the skyscrapers were stand-
ing still, standing always on the same old street
corners always, the Northwest Wind was a
bringer of news.

"Well, I see the city is here yet," the North-
west Wind would whistle to the skyscrapers.

And they would answer, "Yes, and are the
mountains standing yet way out yonder where
you come from, Wind?"

"Yes, the mountains are there yonder, and
farther yonder is the sea, and the railroads are
still going, still running across the prairie to
the mountains, to the sea," the Northwest Wind
would answer.

And now there was a pledge made by the
Northwest Wind to the two skyscrapers. Often
the Northwest Wind shook the tin brass goat
and shook the tin brass goose on top of the sky-
scrapers.

135

The Two Skyscrapers Who

"Are you going to blow loose the tin brass
goat on my roof? 3 ' one asked.

"Are you going to blow loose the tin brass
goose on my roof? 3 the other asked.

"Oh, no/5 the Northwest Wind laughed, first
to one and then to the other, "if I ever blow
loose your tin brass goat and if I ever blow
loose your tin brass goose, it will be when I am
sorry for you because you are up against hard
luck and there is somebody's funeral."

So time passed on and the two skyscrapers
stood with their feet among the policemen and
the taxicabs, the people buying and selling,
— the customers with parcels, packages and
bundles — while away high on their roofs stood
the goat and the goose looking out on silver blue
lakes like blue porcelain breakfast plates and
silver snakes of rivers winding in the morn-
ing sun.

So time passed on and the Northwest Wind
kept coming, telling the news and making
promises.

136

Decided to Have a Child

So time passed on. And the two skyscrapers
decided to have a child.

And they decided when their child came
it should be a free child.

"It must be a free child/' they said to each
other. "It must not be a child standing still
all its life on a street corner. Yes, if we have
a child she must be free to run across the prairie,
to the mountains, to the sea. Yes, it must be
a free child/

So time passed on. Their child came. It
was a railroad train, the Golden Spike Limited,
the fastest long distance train in the Roota-
baga Country. It ran across the prairie, to the
mountains, to the sea.

They were glad, the two skyscrapers were,
glad to have a free child running away from,
the big city, far away to the mountains, far
away to the sea, running as far as the farthest
mountains and sea coasts touched by the North-
west Wind.

They were glad their child was useful, the

137

The Two Skyscrapers Who

two skyscrapers were, glad their child was car-
rying a thousand people a thousand miles a
day, so when people spoke of the Golden Spike
Limited, they spoke of it as a strong, lovely
child.

Then time passed on. There came a day
when the newsies yelled as though they were
crazy. "Yah yah, blah blah, yoh yoh,); was
what it sounded like to the two skyscrapers who
never bothered much about what the newsies
were yelling.

"Yah yah, blah blah, yoh yoh/' was the cry
of the newsies that came up again to the tops
of the skyscrapers.

At last the yelling of the newsies came so
strong the skyscrapers listened and heard the
newsies yammering, "All about the great train
wreck! All about the Golden Spike disaster!
Many lives lost ! Many lives lost ! '

And the Northwest Wind came howling a
slow sad song. And late that afternoon a crowd
of policemen, taxicab; drivers, newsies and

138

Decided to Have a Child

customers with bundles, all stood around talking
and wondering about two things next to each
other on the street car track in the middle of the
street. One was a tin brass goat. The other
was a tin brass goose. And they lay next to each
other.

139

The Dollar Watch and the Five Jack

Rabbits

Long ago, long before the waylacks lost the
wonderful stripes of oat straw gold and the
spots of timothy hay green in their marvelous
curving tail feathers, long before the doo-doo-
j angers whistled among the honeysuckle blos-
soms and the bitter-basters cried their last and
dying wrangling cries, long before the sad hap-
penings that came later, it was then, some years
earlier than the year Fifty Fifty, that Young
Leather and Red Slippers crossed the Rootabaga

Country.

141

The Dollar Watch and

To begin with, they were walking across the
Rootabaga Country. And they were walking
because it made their feet glad to feel the dirt
of the earth under their shoes and they were
close to the smells of the earth. They learned
the ways of birds and bugs, why birds have
wings, why bugs have legs, why the gladdy-
whingers have spotted eggs in a basket nest in a
booblow tree, and why the chizzywhizzies
scrape off little fiddle songs all summer long
while the summer nights last.

Early one morning they were walking across
the corn belt of the Rootabaga Country singing,
"Deep Down Among the Dagger Dancers. J:
They had just had a breakfast of coffee and hot
hankypank cakes covered with cow's butter.
Young Leather said to Red Slippers, "What
is the best secret we have come across this sum-
mer? 3

"That is easy to answer/' Red Slippers said
with a long flish of her long black eyelashes.
"The best secret we have come across is a rope

142

The Five Jack Rabbits

of gold hanging from every star in the sky and
when we want to go up we go up.r

Walking on they came to a town where they
met a man with a sorry face. "Why?3 they
asked him. And he answered, "My brother is
in jail/

"What for? " they asked him again. And he
answered again, "My brother put on a straw
hat in the middle of the winter and went out
on the streets laughing 5 my brother had his
hair cut pompompadour and went out on the
streets bareheaded in the summertime laughing;
and these things were against the law. Worst
of all he sneezed at the wrong time and he
sneezed before the wrong persons; he sneezed
when it was not wise to sneeze. So he will be
hanged to-morrow morning. The gallows
made of lumber and the rope made of hemp
— they are waiting for him to-morrow morn-
ing. They will tie around his neck the hang-
man's necktie and hoist him high/

The man with a sorry face looked more sorry

The Dollar Watch and

than ever. It made Young Leather feel reck-
less and it made Red Slippers feel reckless.
They whispered to each other. Then Young
Leather said, "Take this dollar watch. Give
it to your brother. Tell him when they are
leading him to the gallows he must take
this dollar watch in his hand, wind it up and
push on the stem winder. The rest will be
easy.):

So the next morning when they were leading
the man to be hanged to the gallows made of
lumber and the rope made of hemp, where they
were going to hoist him high because he sneezed
in the wrong place before the wrong people, he
used his fingers winding up the watch and push-
ing on the stem winder. There was a snapping
and a slatching like a gas engine slipping into
a big pair of dragon fly wings. The dollar
watch changed into a dragon fly ship. The
man who was going to be hanged jumped into
the dragon fly ship and flew whonging away
before anybody could stop him.

144

The Five Jack Rabbits

Young Leather and Red Slippers were walk-
ing out of the town laughing and singing again,
"Deep Down Among the Dagger Dancers.'1
The man with a sorry face, not so sorry now any
more, came running after them. Behind the
man and running after him were five long-
legged spider jack- rabbits.

"These are for you,': was his exclamation.
And they all sat down on the stump of a boo-
blow tree. He opened his sorry face and told
the secrets of the five long-legged spider jack-
rabbit's to Young Leather and Red Slippers.

They waved good-by and went on up the road
leading the five new jack-rabbits.

In the next town they came to was a sky-
scraper higher than all the other skyscrapers.
A rich man dying wanted to be remembered and
left in his last will and testament a command
they should build a building so high it would
scrape the thunder clouds and stand higher than
all other skyscrapers with his name carved in
stone letters on the top of it, and an electric sign

The Dollar Watch and

at night with his name on it, and a clock on the
tower with his name on it.

"I am hungry to be remembered and have
my name spoken by many people after I am

dead,);i the rich man told his friends. "I com-
mand you, therefore, to throw the building

high in the air because the higher it goes the
longer I will be remembered and the longer
the years men will mention my name after
I am dead/

So there it was. Young Leather and Red
Slippers laughed when they first saw the sky-
scraper, when they were far off along a coun-
try road singing their old song, "Deep Down
Among the Dagger Dancers. >:

"We got a show and we give a performance
and we want the whole town to see it,?: was
what Young Leather and Red Slippers said to
the mayor of the town when they called on him
at the city hall. "We want a license and a per-
mit to give this free show in the public square."

"What do you do? : ' asked the mayor.

146

The Five Jack Rabbits

"We jump five jack-rabbits, five long-legged
spider jack-rabbits over the highest skyscraper
you got in your city,5' they answered him.

"If it's free and you don't sell anything nor
take any money away from us while it is day-
light and you are giving your performance,
then here is your license permit," said the mayor
speaking in the manner of a politician who has
studied politics.

Thousands of people came to see the show on
the public square. They wished to know how
it would look to see five long-legged, spider
jack-rabbits jump over the highest skyscraper
in the city.

Four of the jack-rabbits had stripes. The
fifth had stripes — and spots. Before they
started the show Young Leather and Red Slip-
pers held the jack- rabbits one by one in their
arms and petted them, rubbed the feet and
rubbed the long ears and ran their fingers along
the long legs of the jumpers.

"Zingo,''1 they yelled to the first jack-rabbit,

The Dollar Watch and

He got all ready. "And now zingo!5 they
yelled again. And the jack-rabbit took a run,
lifted off his feet and went on and on and up
and up till he went over the roof of the sky-
scraper and then went down and down till
he lit on his feet and came running on his long
legs back to the public square where he started
from, back where Young Leather and Red
Slippers petted him and rubbed his long ears
and said, "That's the boy.?:

Then three jack-rabbits made the jump over
the skyscraper. "Zingo/: they heard and got
ready. "And now zingo/' they heard and all
three together in a row, their long ears touch-
ing each other, they lifted off their feet and
went on and on and up and up till they cleared
the roof of the skyscraper. Then they came
down and down till they lit on their feet and
came running to the hands of Young Leather
and Red Slippers to have their long legs and
their long ears rubbed and petted.

Then came the turn of the fifth jack-rabbit,

148

The Five Jack Rabbits

the beautiful one with stripes and spots. "Ah,
we're sorry to see you go, Ah-h, we're sorry/3
they said, rubbing his long ears and feeling of
his long legs.

Then Young Leather and Red Slippers
kissed him on the nose, kissed the last and fifth
of the five long-legged spider jack-rabbits.

"Good-by, old bunny, good-by, you're the
dandiest bunny there ever was/' they whispered
in his long ears. And he, because he knew what
they were saying and why they were saying
it, he wiggled his long ears and looked long
and steady at them from his deep eyes.

"Zango," they yelled. He got ready.
"And now zango!" they yelled again. And
the fifth jack-rabbit with his stripes and spots
lifted off his feet and went on and on and on
and up and up and when he came to the roof
of the skyscraper he kept on going on and on
and up and up till after a while he was gone
all the way out of sight.

They waited and watched, they watched

149

The Dollar Watch

and waited. He never came back. He never
was heard of again. He was gone. With the
stripes on his back and the spots on his hair,
he was gone. And Young Leather and Red
Slippers said they were glad they had kissed him
on the nose before he went away on a long trip
far off j so far off he never came back.

150

The Wooden Indian and the Shaghorn

Buffalo

One night a milk white moon was shining
down on Main Street. The sidewalks and the
stones, the walls and the windows all stood out
milk white. And there was a thin blue mist
drifted and shifted like a woman's veil up and
down Main Street, up to the moon and back
again. Yes, all Main Street was a mist blue
and a milk white, mixed up and soft all over
and all through.

It was past midnight. The Wooden Indian
in front of the cigar store stepped down off

The Wooden Indian and

his stand. The Shaghorn Buffalo in front of
the haberdasher shop lifted his head and shook
his whiskers, raised his hoofs out of his hoof-
tracks.

Then — this is what happened. They moved
straight toward each other. In the middle of
Main Street they met. The Wooden Indian
jumped straddle of the Shaghorn Buffalo.
And the Shaghorn Buffalo put his head down
and ran like a prairie wind straight west on
Main Street.

At the high hill over the big bend of the
Clear Green River they stopped. They stood
looking. Drifting and shifting like a woman's
blue veil, the blue mist filled the valley and the
milk white moon filled the valley. And the
mist and the moon touched with a lingering,
wistful kiss the clear green water of the Clear
Green River.

So they stood looking, the Wooden Indian
with his copper face and wooden feathers, and
the Shaghorn Buffalo with his big head and

152

So they stood looking

The Shaghorn Buffalo

heavy shoulders slumping down close to the
ground.

And after they had looked a long while^ and
each of them got an eyeful of the high hill,
the big bend and the moon mist on the river
all blue and white and soft, after they had
looked a long while, they turned around and
the Shaghorn Buffalo put his head down and
ran like a prairie wind down Main Street till
he was exactly in front of the cigar store and
the haberdasher shop. Then whisk! both of
them were right back like they were before,
standing still, taking whatever comes.

This is the story as it came from the night
policeman of the Village of Cream Puffs. He
told the people the next day, "I was sitting on
the steps of the cigar store last night watching
for burglars. And when I saw the Wooden
Indian step down and the Shaghorn Buffalo
step out, and the two of them go down Main
Street like the wind, I says to myself, marvelish,
'tis marvelish, 'tis marvelish.*

155

6. Four Stories About
Dear, Dear Eyes

People: The White Horse Girl
The Blue Wind Boy
The Gray Man on Horseback
Six Girls With Balloons

Henry Hagglyhoagly

Susan Slackentwist

Two Wool Yarn Mittens

Peter Potato Blossom Wishes

Her Father

Many Shoes

Slippers

A Slipper Moon

The White Horse Girl and the Blue Wind

Boy

When the dishes are washed at night time
and the cool of the evening has come in sum-
mer or the lamps and fires are lit for the night
in winter, then the fathers and mothers in the
Rootabaga Country sometimes tell the young
people the story of the White Horse Girl and
the Blue Wind Boy.

The White Horse Girl grew up far in the
west of the Rootabaga Country. All the years
she grew up as a girl she liked to ride horses.
Best of all things for her was to be straddle

159

The White Horse Girl

of a white horse loping with a loose bridle
among the hills and along the rivers of the west
Rootabaga Country.

She rode one horse white as snow, another
horse white as new washed sheep wool, and an-
other white as silver. And she could not tell
because she did not know which of these three
white horses she liked best.

"Snow is beautiful enough for me any time,"
she said, "new washed sheep wool, or silver
out of a ribbon of the new moon, any or either
is white enough for me. I like the white
manes, the white flanks, the white noses, the
white feet of all my ponies. I like the fore-
locks hanging down between the white ears of
all three — my ponies."

And living neighbor to the White Horse
Girl in the same prairie country, with the same
black crows flying over their places, was the
Blue Wind Boy. All the years he grew up as
a boy he liked to walk with his feet in the dirt
and the grass listening to the winds. Best of

1 60

And the Blue Wind Boy

all things for him was to put on strong shoes
and go hiking among the hills and along the
rivers of the west Rootabaga Country, listen-
ing to the winds.

There was a blue wind of day time, starting
sometimes six o'clock on a summer morning or
eight o'clock on a winter morning. And there
was a night wind with blue of summer stars
in summer and blue of winter stars in winter.
And there was yet another, a blue wind of the
times between night and day, a blue dawn and
evening wind. All three of these winds he
liked so well he could not say which he liked
best.

"The early morning wind is strong as the
prairie and whatever I tell it I know it believes
and remembers,5' he said, "and the night wind
with the big dark curves of the night sky in it,
the night wind gets inside of me and under-
stands all my secrets. And the blue wind of the
times between, in the dusk when it is neither
night nor day, this is the wind that asks me

161

The White Horse Girl

questions and tells me to wait and it will bring
me whatever I want/

Of course, it happened as it had to happen,
the White Horse Girl and the Blue Wind Boy
met. She, straddling one of her white horses,
and he, wearing his strong hiking shoes in the
dirt and the grass, it had to happen they should
meet among the hills and along the rivers of
the west Rootabaga Country where they lived
neighbors.

And of course, she told him all about the
snow white horse and the horse white as new
washed sheep wool and the horse white as a
silver ribbon of the new moon. And he told
her all about the blue winds he liked listening
to, the early morning wind, the night sky wind,
and the wind of the dusk between, the wind
that asked him questions and told him to wait.

One day the two of them were gone. On
the same day of the week the White Horse Girl
and the Blue Wind Boy went away. And their
fathers and mothers and sisters and brothers

162

'And the Blue Wind Boy

and uncles and aunts wondered about them and
talked about them, because they didn't tell any-
body beforehand they were going. Nobody at
all knew beforehand or afterward why they
were going away, the real honest why of it.
They left a short letter. It read:

To All Our Sweethearts, Old Folks and Young

Folks:

We have started to go where the white horses
come from and where the blue winds begin. Keep
a corner in your hearts for us while we are gone.

The White Horse Girl.
The Blue Wind* Boy.

That was all they had to guess by in the west
Rootabaga Country, to guess and guess where
two darlings had gone.

Many years passed. One day there came rid-
ing across the Rootabaga Country a Gray Man
on Horseback. He looked like he had come a
long ways. So they asked him the question
they always asked of any rider who looked like
he had come a long ways, "Did you ever see the

163

The White Horse Girl

White Horse Girl and the Blue Wind Boy?"

"Yes/5 he answered, "I saw them.

"It was a long, long ways from here I saw
them," he went on, "it would take years and
years to ride to where they are. They were
sitting together and talking to each other, some-
times singing, in a place where the land runs
high and tough rocks reach up. And they were
looking out across water, blue water as far as
the eye could see. And away far off the blue
waters met the blue sky.

"'Look!' said the Boy, 'that's where the
blue winds begin.'

"And far out on the blue waters, just a little
this side of where the blue winds begin, there
were white manes, white flanks, white noses,
white galloping feet.

"'Look!' said the Girl, 'that's where the
white horses come from.'

"And then nearer to the land came thousands
in an hour, millions in a day, white horses, some
white as snow, some like new washed sheep

164

And the Blue Wind Boy

wool, some white as silver ribbons of the new
moon.

"I asked them, c Whose place is this? 3 They
answered, 'It belongs to us; this is what we
started for; this is where the white horses come
from; this is where the blue winds begin. '

And that was all the Gray Man on Horse-
back would tell the people of the west Roota-
baga Country. That was all he knew, he said,
and if there was any more he would tell it.

And the fathers and mothers and sisters and
brothers and uncles and aunts of the White
Horse Girl and the Blue Wind Boy wondered
and talked often about whether the Gray Man
on Horseback made up the story out of his head
or whether it happened just like he told it.

Anyhow this is the story they tell sometimes
to the young people of the west Rootabaga
Country when the dishes are washed at night
and the cool of the evening has come in summer
or the lamps and fires are lit for the night in
winter.

What Six Girls with Balloons Told the
Gray Man on Horseback

Once there came riding across the Roota-
baga Country a Gray Man on Horseback. He
looked as if he had come a long ways. He
looked like a brother to the same Gray Man on
Horseback who said he had seen the White
Horse Girl and the Blue Wind Boy.

He stopped in the Village of Cream Puffs.
His gray face was sad and his eyes were gray
deep and sad. He spoke short and seemed
strong. Sometimes his eyes looked as if they
were going to flash, but instead of fire they

filled with shadows.

167

What Six Girls with Balloons

Yet — he did laugh once. It did happen once
he lifted his head and face to the sky and let
loose a long ripple of laughs.

On Main Street near the Roundhouse of the
Big Spool, where they wind up the string that
pulls the light little town back when the wind
blows it away, there he was riding slow on his
gray horse when he met six girls with six fine
braids of yellow hair and six balloons apiece.
That is, each and every one of the six girls had
six fine long braids of yellow hair and each
braid of hair had a balloon tied on the end. A
little blue wind was blowing and the many
balloons tied to the braids of the six girls swung
up and down and slow and fast whenever the
blue wind went up and down and slow and fast.

For the first time since he had been in the
Village, the eyes of the Gray Man filled with
lights and his face began to look hopeful. He
stopped his horse when he came even with the
six girls and the balloons floating from the
braids of yellow hair.

1 68

Told the Gray Man on Horseback

"Where you going?" he asked.

"Who — hoo-hoo? Who — who — who? "the
six girls cheeped out.

"All six of you and your balloons, where you
going?"

"Oh, hoo-hoo-hoo, back where we came
from," and they all turned their heads back and
forth and sideways, which of course turned all
the balloons back and forth and sideways be-
cause the balloons were fastened to the fine
braids of hair which were fastened to their
heads.

"And where do you go when you get back
where you came from?' he asked just to be
asking.

"Oh, hoo-hoo-hoo, then we start out and go
straight ahead and see what we can see,5' they
all answered just to be answering and they
dipped their heads and swung them up which
of course dipped all the balloons and swung
them up.

So they talked, he asking just to be asking

169

What Six Girls with Balloons

and the six balloon girls answering just to be
answering.

At last his sad mouth broke into a smile and
his eyes were lit like a morning sun coming
up over harvest fields. And he said to them,
"Tell me why are balloons — that is what I want
you to tell me — why are balloons?3

The first little girl put her thumb under
her chin, looked up at her six balloons floating
in the little blue wind over her head, and said:
"Balloons are wishes. The wind made them.
The west wind makes the red balloons. The
south wind makes the blue. The yellow and
green balloons come from the east wind and the
north wind.5

The second little girl put her first finger next
to her nose, looked up at her six balloons dip-
ping up and down like hill flowers in a small
wind, and said:

"A balloon used to be a flower. It got tired.
Then it changed itself to a balloon. I listened
one time to a yellow balloon. It was talking

170

Told the Gray Man on Horseback

to itself like people talk. It said, 'I used to be
a yellow pumpkin flower stuck down close to the
ground, now I am a yellow balloon high up in
the air where nobody can walk on me and I can
see everything.'

The third little girl held both of her ears like
she was afraid they would wiggle while she
slid with a skip, turned quick, and looking up at
her balloons, spoke these words:

"A balloon is foam. It comes the same as
soap bubbles come. A long time ago it used
to be sliding along on water, river water, ocean
water, waterfall water, falling and falling
over a rocky waterfall, any water you want.
The wind saw the bubble and picked it up and
carried it away, telling it, cNow you're a bal-
loon— come along and see the world.'

The fourth little girl jumped straight into
the air so all six of her balloons made a jump
like they were going to get loose and go to the
sky — and when the little girl came down from
her jump and was standing on her two feet

171

What Six Girls <&ith Balloons

with her head turned looking up at the six bal-
loons, she spoke the shortest answer of all, say-
ing:

"Balloons are to make us look up. They help
our necks/

The fifth little girl stood first on one foot,
then another, bent her head down to her knees
and looked at her toes, then swinging straight
up and looking at the flying spotted yellow and
red and green balloons, she said:

"Balloons come from orchards. Look for
trees where half is oranges and half is orange
balloons. Look for apple trees where half is
red pippins and half is red pippin balloons.
Look for watermelons too. A long green bal-
loon with white and yellow belly stripes is a
ghost. It came from a watermelon said good-
by."

The sixth girl, the last one, kicked the heel
of her left foot with the toe of her right foot,
put her thumbs under her ears and wiggled all
her fingers, then stopped all her kicking and

172

Told the Gray Man on Horseback

wiggling, and stood looking up at her balloons
all quiet because the wind had gone down — and
she murmured like she was thinking to herself:

"Balloons come from fire chasers. Every
balloon has a fire chaser chasing it. All the
fire chasers are made terrible quick and when
they come they burn quick, so the balloon is
made light so it can run away terrible quick.
Balloons slip away from fire. If they don't
they can't be balloons. Running away from
fire keeps them light. ):

All the time he listened to the six girls the
face of the Gray Man kept getting more hope-
ful. His eyes lit up. Twice he smiled. And
after he said good-by and rode up the street,
he lifted his head and face to the sky and let
loose a long ripple of laughs.

He kept looking back when he left the Vil-
lage and the last thing he saw was the six girls
each with six balloons fastened to the six braids
of yellow hair hanging down their backs.

The sixth little girl kicked the heel of her

173

Six Girls with Balloons

left foot with the toe of her right foot and
said, "He is a nice man. I think he must be
our uncle. If he comes again we shall all ask
him to tell us where he thinks balloons come
from."

And the other five girls all answered, "Yes,''
or "Yes, yes,): or "Yes, yes, yes,': real fast like
a balloon with a fire chaser after it.

17?

How Henry Hagglyhoagly Played the
Guitar with His Mittens On

Sometimes in January the sky comes down
close if we walk on a country road, and turn
our faces up to look at the sky.

Sometimes on that kind of a January night
the stars look like numbers, look like the arith-
metic writing of a girl going to school and just
beginning arithmetic.

It was this kind of a night Henry Haggly-
hoagly was walking down a country road on
his way to the home of Susan Slackentwist, the

175

How Henry Hagglyhoagly Played

daughter of the rutabaga king near the Vil-
lage of Liver-and-Onions. When Henry
Hagglyhoagly turned his face up to look at the
sky it seemed to him as though the sky came
down close to his nose, and there was a writing
in stars as though some girl had been doing
arithmetic examples, writing number 4 and
number 7 and 4 and 7 over and over again
across the sky.

"Why is it so bitter cold weather ?" Henry
Hagglyhoagly asked himself, "if I say many
bitter bitters it is not so bitter as the cold wind
and the cold weather."

"You are good, mittens, keeping my fingers
warm/5 he said every once in a while to the wool
yarn mittens on his hands.

The wind came tearing along and put its
chilly, icy, clammy clamps on the nose of Henry
Hagglyhoagly, fastening the clamps like a nip-
ping, gripping clothes pin on his nose. He put
his wool yarn mittens up on his nose and rubbed
till the wind took off the chilly, icy, clammy

176

It seemed to him as though the sky came down close

to his nose

The Guitar with His Mittens On

clamps. His nose was warm again ; he said,
"Thank you, mittens, for keeping my nose

warm."

He spoke to his wool yarn mittens as though
they were two kittens or pups, or two little cub
bears, or two little Idaho ponies. "You're my
chums keeping me company/' he said to the
mittens.

aDo you know what we got here under our
left elbow?" he said to the mittens, "I shall
mention to you what is here under my left
elbow.

"It ain't a mandolin, it ain't a mouth organ
nor an accordion nor a concertina nor a fiddle.
It is a guitar, a Spanish Spinnish Splishy guitar
made special.

"Yes, mittens, they said a strong young man
like me ought to have a piano because a piano
is handy to play for everybody in the house and
a piano is handy to put a hat and overcoat on or
books or flowers.

"I snizzled at Jem, mittens. I told 'em I

179

How Henry Hagglyhoagly Played

seen a Spanish Spinnish Splishy guitar made
special in a hardware store window for eight
dollars and a half.

"And so, mittens — are you listening, mit-
tens?— after cornhusking was all husked and
the oats thrashing all thrashed and the rutabaga
digging all dug, I took eight dollars and a half
in my inside vest pocket and I went to the hard-
ware store.

"I put my thumbs in my vest pocket and I
wiggled my fingers like a man when he is proud
of what he is going to have if he gets it. And
I said to the head clerk in the hardware store,
'Sir, the article I desire to purchase this evening
as one of your high class customers, the article
I desire to have after I buy it for myself, is the
article there in the window, sir, the Spanish
Spinnish Splishy guitar.'

"And, mittens, if you are listening, I am tak-
ing this Spanish Spinnish Splishy guitar to go
to the home of Susan Slackentwist, the daugh-
ter of the rutabaga king near the Village of

1 80

The Guitar with His Mittens On

Liver-and-Onions, to sing a serenade song."

The cold wind of the bitter cold weather
blew and blew, trying to blow the guitar out
from under the left elbow of Henry Haggly-
hoagly. And the worse the wind blew the
tighter he held his elbow holding the guitar
where he wanted it.

He walked on and on with his long legs
stepping long steps till at last he stopped, held
his nose in the air, and sniffed.

"Do I sniff something or do I not? : ' he asked,
lifting his wool yarn mittens to his nose and
rubbing his nose till it was warm. Again he
sniffed.

"Ah hah, yeah, yeah, this is the big rutabaga
field near the home of the rutabaga king and
the home of his daughter, Susan Slackentwist.5:

At last he came to the house, stood under the
window and slung the guitar around in front of
him to play the music to go with the song.

"And now," he asked his mittens, "shall I
take you off or keep you on? If I take you off

181

How Henry Hagglyhoagly Played

the cold wind of the bitter cold weather will
freeze my hands so stiff and bitter cold my
fingers will be too stiff to play the guitar. /
<will play 'with mittens on"

Which he did. He stood under the window
of Susan Slackentwist and played the guitar
with his mittens on, the warm wool yarn mit-
tens he called his chums. It was the first time
any strong young man going to see his sweet-
heart ever played the guitar with his mittens
on when it was a bitter night with a cold wind
and cold weather.

Susan Slackentwist opened her window and
threw him a snow-bird feather to keep for a
keepsake to remember her by. And for years
afterward many a sweetheart in the Rootabaga
Country told her lover, "If you wish to marry
me let me hear you under my window on a
winter night playing the guitar with wool yarn
mittens on.?;

And when Henry Hagglyhoagly walked
home on his long legs stepping long steps, he

182

The Guitar with His Mittens On

said to his mittens, "This Spanish Spinnish
Splishy guitar made special will bring us luck."
And when he turned his face up> the sky came
down close and he could see stars fixed like
numbers and the arithmetic writing of a girl
going to school learning to write number 4 and
number 7 and 4 and 7 over and over.

183

Never Kick a Slipper at the Moon

When a girl is growing up in the Rootabaga
Country she learns some things to do, some
things not to do.

"Never kick a slipper at the moon if it is
the time for the Dancing Slipper Moon when
the slim early moon looks like the toe and the
heel of a dancer's foot,): was the advice Mr.
Wishes, the father of Peter Potato Blossom
Wishes, gave to his daughter.

"Why?" she asked him.

"Because your slipper will go straight up, on
and on to the moon, and fasten itself on the
moon as if the moon is a foot ready for danc-
ing,53 said Mr. Wishes.

Never Kick a Slipper at the Moon

"A long time ago there was one night when
a secret word was passed around to all the shoes
standing in the bedrooms and closets.

"The whisper of the secret was: (To-night
all the shoes and the slippers and the boots of
the world are going walking without any feet
in them. To-night when those who put us on
their feet in the daytime, are sleeping in their
beds, we all get up and walk and go walking
where we walk in the daytime.'

"And in the middle of the night, when the
people in the beds were sleeping, the shoes and
the slippers and the boots everywhere walked
out of the bedrooms and the closets. Along the
sidewalks on the streets, up and down stairways,
along hallways, the shoes and slippers and the
boots tramped and marched and stumbled.

"Some walked pussyfoot, sliding easy and
soft just like people in the daytime. Some
walked clumping and clumping, coming down
heavy on the heels and slow on the toes, just
like people in the daytime.

1 86

Never Kick a Slipper at the Moon

"Some turned their toes in and walked
pigeon-toe, some spread their toes out and held
their heels in, just like people in the daytime.
Some ran glad and fast, some lagged slow and
sorry.

"Now there was a little girl in the Village
of Cream Puffs who came home from a dance
that night. And she was tired from dancing
round dances and square dances, one steps and
two steps, toe dances and toe and heel dances,
dances close up and dances far apart, she was
so tired she took off only one slipper, tumbled
onto her bed and went to sleep with one slipper
on.

"She woke up in the morning when it was
yet dark. And she went to the window and
looked up in the sky and saw a Dancing Slipper
Moon dancing far and high in the deep blue sea
of the moon sky.

" (Oh — what a moon — what a dancing slip-
per of a moon!5 she cried with a little song to
herself.

Never Kick a Slipper at the Moon

"She opened the window, saying again, cOh!
what a moon!' — and kicked her foot with the
slipper on it straight toward the moon.

"The slipper flew off and flew up and went
on and on and up and up in the moonshine.

"It never came back, that slipper. It was
never seen again. When they asked the girl
about it she said, clt slipped off my foot and
went up and up and the last I saw of it the slip-
per was going on straight to the moon.'

And these are the explanations why fathers
and mothers in the Rootabaga Country say to
their girls growing up, "Never kick a slipper
at the moon if it is the time of the Dancing
Slipper Moon when the ends of the moon look
like the toe and the heel of a dancer's foot."

7. One Story — "Only the
Fire-Born Understand Blue"

People: Fire the Goat

Film the Goose
Shadows

Sand Flat Shadows

Fire the Goat and Film the Goose slept out.
Stub pines stood over them. And away up next
over the stub pines were stars.

It was a white sand flat they slept on. The
floor of the sand flat ran straight to the Big
Lake of the Booming Rollers.

And just over the sand flat and just over the
booming rollers was a high room where the
mist people were making pictures. Gray pic-
tures, blue and sometimes a little gold, and often
silver, were the pictures.

And next just over the high room where the
mist people were making pictures, next just

over were the stars.

191

Sand Flat Shadows

Over everything and always last and highest
of all, were the stars.

Fire the Goat took off his horns. Flim the
Goose took off his wings. "This is where we
sleep,>: they said to each other, "here in the
stub pines on the sand flats next to the booming
rollers and high over everything and always
last and highest of all, the stars. ?:

Fire the Goat laid his horns under his head.
Flim the Goose laid his wings under his head.
"This is the best place for what you want to
keep/5 they said to each other. Then they
crossed their fingers for luck and lay down and
went to sleep and slept. And while they slept
the mist people went on making pictures.
Gray pictures, blue and sometimes a little gold
but more often silver, such were the pictures
the mist people went on making while Fire the
Goat and Flim the Goose went on sleeping.
And over everything and always last and high-
est of all, were the stars.

They woke up. Fire the Goat took his horns

192

Sand Flat Shadows

out and put them on. "It's morning now/' he
said.

Flim the Goose took his wings out and put
them on. "It's another day now," he said.

Then they sat looking. Away off where the
sun was coming up, inching and pushing up far
across the rim curve of the Big Lake of the
Booming Rollers, along the whole line of the
east sky, there were people and animals, all
black or all so gray they were near black.

There was a big horse with his mouth open,
ears laid back, front legs thrown in two curves
like harvest sickles.

There was a camel with two humps, moving
slow and grand like he had all the time of all
the years of all the world to go in.

There was an elephant without any head,
with six short legs. There were many cows.
There was a man with a club over his shoulder
and a woman with a bundle on the back of her
neck.

And they marched on. They were going

193

Sand Flat Shadows

nowhere, it seemed. And they were going slow.
They had plenty of time. There was nothing
else to do. It was fixed for them to do it, long
ago it was fixed. And so they were marching.

Sometimes the big horse's head sagged and
dropped off and came back again. Sometimes
the humps of the camel sagged and dropped
off and came back again. And sometimes the
club on the man's shoulder got bigger and heav-
ier and the man staggered under it and then
his legs got bigger and stronger and he steadied
himself and went on. And again sometimes
the bundle on the back of the neck of the
woman got bigger and heavier and the bundle
sagged and the woman staggered and her legs
got bigger and stronger and she steadied her-
self and went on.

This was the show, the hippodrome, the
spectacular circus that passed on the east sky
before the eyes of Fire the Goat and Flim the
Goose.

"Which is this, who are they and why do

194

Away off where the sun was coming up, there were

people and animals

Sand Flat Shadows

they come?" Flim the Goose asked Fire the
Goat.

"Do you ask me because you wish me to tell
you? 3> asked Fire the Goat.

"Indeed it is a question to which I want an
honest answer.*

"Has never the father or mother nor the
uncle or aunt nor the kith and kin of Flim the
Goose told him the what and the which of
this?"

"Never has the such of this which been put
here this way to me by anybody.*

Flim the Goose held up his fingers and said,
"I don't talk to you with my fingers crossed."

And so Fire the Goat began to explain to
Flim the Goose all about the show, the hip-
podrome, the mastodonic cyclopean spectacle
which was passing on the east sky in front of
the sun coming up.

"People say they are shadows," began Fire
the Goat. "That is a name, a word, a little
cough and a couple of syllables.

197

Sand Flat Shadows

"For some people shadows are comic and
only to laugh at. For some other people shad-
ows are like a mouth and its breath. The
breath comes out and it is nothing. It is like
air and nobody can make it into a package and
carry it away. It will not melt like gold nor
can you shovel it like cinders. So to these
people it means nothing.

"And then there are other people," Fire the
Goat went on. "There are other people who
understand shadows. The fire-born under-
stand. The fire-born know where shadows
come from and why they are.

"Long ago, when the Makers of the World
were done making the round earth, the time
came when they were ready to make the ani-
mals to put on the earth. They were not sure
how to make the animals. They did not know
what shape animals they wanted.

"And so they practised. They did not make
real animals at first. They made only shapes
of animals. And these shapes were shadows,

198

Sand Flat Shadows

shadows like these you and I, Fire the Goat
and Flim the Goose, are looking at this morn-
ing across the booming rollers on the east sky
where the sun is coming up.

"The shadow horse over there on the east
sky with his mouth open, his ears laid back,
and his front legs thrown in a curve like harvest
sickles, that shadow horse was one they made
long ago when they were practising to make a
real horse. That shadow horse was a mistake
and they threw him away. Never will you
see two shadow horses alike. All shadow horses
on the sky are different. Each one is a mistake,
a shadow horse thrown away because he was
not good enough to be a real horse.

"That elephant with no head on his neck,
stumbling so grand on six legs — and that grand
camel with two humps, one bigger than the
other — and those cows with horns in front and
behind — they are all mistakes, they were all
thrown away because they were not made good
enough to be real elephants, real cows, real

199

Sand Flat Shadows

carrels. They were made jmst for practice,
away back early in the world before any real
animals came on their legs to eat and live and
be here like the rest of us.

"That man — see him now staggering along
with the club over his shoulder — see how his
long arms come to his knees and sometimes his
hands drag below his feet. See how heavy the
club on his shoulders loads him down and
drags him on. He is one of the oldest shadow
men. He was a mistake and they threw him
away. He was made just for practice.

"And that woman. See her now at the end
of that procession across the booming rollers
on the east sky. See her the last of all, the end
of the procession. On the back of her neck a
bundle. Sometimes the bundle gets bigger.
The woman staggers. Her legs get bigger and
stronger. She picks herself up and goes along
shaking her head. She is the same as the others.
She is a shadow and she was made as a mistake.

200

Sand Flat Shadows

Early, early in the beginnings of the world
she was made, for practice.

"Listen, Flim the Goose. What I am tell-
ing you is a secret of the fire-born. I do not
know whether you understand. We have slept
together a night on the sand flats next to the
booming rollers, under the stub pines with the
stars high over — and so I tell what the fathers
of the fire-born tell their sons.';

And that day Fire the Goat and Flim the
Goose moved along the sand flat shore of the
Big Lake of the Booming Rollers. It was a
blue day, with a fire-blue of the sun mixing
itself in the air and the water. Off to the
north the booming rollers were blue sea-green.
To the east they were sometimes streak purple,
sometimes changing bluebell stripes. And to
the south they were silver blue, sheet blue.

Where the shadow hippodrome marched on
the east sky that morning was a long line of

blue-bird spots.

201

Sand Flat Shadows

"Only the fire-born understand blue/: said
Fire the Goat to Flim the Goose. And that
night as the night before they slept on a sand
flat. And again Fire the Goat took off his
horns and laid them under his head while he
slept and Flim the Goose took off his wings
and laid them under his head while he slept.

And twice in the night. Fire the Goat whis-
pered in his sleep, whispered to the stars, "Only
the fire-born understand blue."

202

8. Two Stories About Corn Fairies,
Blue Foxes, Flongboos and Hap-
penings That Happened in the
United States and Canada

People: Spink

Skabootch
A Man
Corn Fairies

Blue Foxes
Flongboos

A Philadelphia Policeman
Passenger Conductor
Chicago Newspapers
The Head Spotter of the
Weather Makers at Medi-
cine Hat

203

How to Tell Corn Fairies If You See 'Em

If you have ever watched the little corn
begin to march across the black lands and then
slowly change to big corn and go marching on
from the little corn moon of summer to the big
corn harvest moon of autumn, then you must
have guessed who it is that helps the corn come
along. It is the corn fairies. Leave out the
corn fairies and there wouldn't be any corn.

All children know this. All boys and girls
know that corn is no good unless there are
corn fairies.

Have you ever stood in Illinois or Iowa and

205

How to Tell Corn Fairies

watched the late summer wind or the early fall
wind running across a big cornfield? It looks
as if a big, long blanket were being spread out
for dancers to come and dance on. If you look
close and if you listen close you can see the corn
fairies come dancing and singing — sometimes.
If it is a wild day and a hot sun is pouring down
while a cool north wind blows — and this hap-
pens sometimes — then you will be sure to see
thousands of corn fairies marching and coun-
termarching in mocking grand marches over
the big, long blanket of green and silver. Then
too they sing, only you must listen with your
littlest and newest ears if you wish to hear their
singing. They sing soft songs that go pla-sizzy
pla-sizzy-sizzy, and each song is softer than an
eye wink, softer than a Nebraska baby's thumb.
And Spink, who is a little girl living in the
same house with the man writing this story, and
Skabootch, who is another little girl in the same
house — both Spink and Skabootch are asking
the question, "How can we tell corn fairies if

206

// You See 'Em

we see 'em? If we meet a corn fairy how will
we know it? " And this is the explanation the
man gave to Spink who is older than Skabootch,
and to Skabootch who is younger than Spink: —

All corn fairies wear overalls. They work
hard, the corn fairies, and they are proud. The
reason they are proud is because they work so
hard. And the reason they work so hard is be-
cause they have overalls.

But understand this. The overalls are corn

gold cloth, woven from leaves of ripe corn
mixed with ripe October corn silk. In the first
week of the harvest moon coming up red and
changing to yellow and silver the corn fairies
sit by thousands between the corn rows weaving
and stitching the clothes they have to wear
next winter, next spring, next summer.

They sit cross-legged when they sew. And it
is a law among them each one must point the
big toe at the moon while sewing the harvest
moon clothes. When the moon comes up red
as blood early in the evening they point their

207

How to Tell Corn Fairies

big toes slanting toward the east. Then to-
wards midnight when the moon is yellow and
half way up the sky their big toes are only half
slanted as they sit cross-legged sewing. And
after midnight when the moon sails its silver
disk high overhead and toward the west, then
the corn fairies sit sewing with their big toes
pointed nearly straight up.

If it is a cool night and looks like frost, then
the laughter of the corn fairies is something
worth seeing. All the time they sit sewing their
next year clothes they are laughing. It is not
a law they have to laugh. They laugh because
they are half-tickled and glad because it is a
good corn year.

And whenever the corn fairies laugh then
the laugh comes out of the mouth like a thin
gold frost. If you should be lucky enough to
see a thousand corn fairies sitting between the
corn rows and all of them laughing, you would
laugh with wonder yourself to see the gold frost
coming from their mouths while they laughed.

208

// You See 'Em

Travelers who have traveled far, and seen
many things, say that if you know the corn
fairies with a real knowledge you can always
tell by the stitches in their clothes what state
they are from.

In Illinois the corn fairies stitch fifteen
stitches of ripe corn silk across the woven corn
leaf cloth. In Iowa they stitch sixteen stitches,
in Nebraska seventeen, and the farther west
you go the more corn silk stitches the corn
fairies have in the corn cloth clothes they wear.

In Minnesota one year there were fairies
with a blue sash of corn-flowers across the
breast. In the Dakotas the same year all the
fairies wore pumpkin-flower neckties, yellow
four-in-hands and yellow ascots. And in one
strange year it happened in both the states of
Ohio and Texas the corn fairies wore little
wristlets of white morning glories.

The traveler who heard about this asked
many questions and found out the reason why
that year the corn fairies wore little wristlets

209

How to Tell Corn Fairies

of white morning glories. He said, "When-
ever fairies are sad they wear white. And this
year, which was long ago, was the year men
were tearing down all the old zigzag rail fences.
Now those old zigzag rail fences were beauti-
ful for the fairies because a hundred fairies
could sit on one rail and thousands and thou-
sands of them could sit on the zigzags and sing
pla-sizzy pla-sizzy, softer than an eye-wink,
softer than a baby's thumb, all on a moonlight
summer night. And they found out that year
was going to be the last year of the zigzag rail
fences. It made them sorry and sad, and when
they are sorry and sad they wear white. So they
picked the wonderful white morning glories
running along the zigzag rail fences and made
them into little wristlets and wore those wrist-
lets the next year to show they were sorry and
sad."

Of course, all this helps you to know how
the corn fairies look in the evening, the night

2IO

// You See 'Em

time and the moonlight. Now we shall see
how they look in the day time.

In the day time the corn fairies have their
overalls of corn gold cloth on. And they walk
among the corn rows and climb the corn stalks
and fix things in the leaves and stalks and ears
of the corn. They help it to grow.

Each one carries on the left shoulder a mouse
brush to brush away the field mice. And over
the right shoulder each one has a cricket broom
to sweep away the crickets. The brush is a
whisk brush to brush away mice that get foolish.
And the broom is to sweep away crickets that
get foolish.

Around the middle of each corn fairy is a yel-
low-belly belt. And stuck in this belt is a pur-
ple moon shaft hammer. Whenever the wind
blows strong and nearly blows the corn down,
then the fairies run out and take their purple
moon shaft hammers out of their yellow-belly
belts and nail down nails to keep the corn from

211

How to Tell Corn Fairies

blowing down. When a rain storm is blowing
up terrible and driving all kinds of terribles
across the cornfield, then you can be sure of one
thing. Running like the wind among the corn
rows are the fairies, jerking their purple moon
shaft hammers out of their belts and nailing
nails down to keep the corn standing up so it
will grow and be ripe and beautiful when the
harvest moon comes again in the fall.

Spink and Skabootch ask where the corn
fairies get the nails. The answer to Spink and
Skabootch is, "Next week you will learn all
about where the corn fairies get the nails to
nail down the corn if you will keep your faces
washed and your ears washed till next week.5

And the next time you stand watching a big
cornfield in late summer or early fall, when
the wind is running across the green and silver,
listen with your littlest and newest ears. May-
be you will hear the corn fairies going pla-sizzy
pla-sizzy-sizzy, softer than an eye wink, softer
than a Nebraska baby's thumb.

212

How the Animals Lost Their Tails and

Got Them Back Traveling From

Philadelphia to Medicine Hat

Far up in North America, near the Saskatch-
ewan river, in the Winnipeg wheat country,
not so far from the town of Moose Jaw named
for the jaw of a moose shot by a hunter there,
up where the blizzards and the chinooks begin,
where nobody works unless they have to and
they nearly all have to, there stands the place
known as Medicine Hat.

And there on a high stool in a high tower

213

How the Animals Lost Their

on a high hill sits the Head Spotter of the
Weather Makers.

When the animals lost their tails it was be-
cause the Head Spotter of the Weather Makers
at Medicine Hat was careless.

The tails of the animals were stiff and dry
because for a long while there was dusty dry
weather. Then at last came rain. And the
water from the sky poured on the tails of the
animals and softened them.

Then the chilly chills came whistling with
icy mittens and they froze all the tails stiff. A
big wind blew up and blew and blew till all
the tails of the animals blew off.

It was easy for the fat stub hogs with their
fat stub tails. But it was not so easy for the
blue fox who uses his tail to help him when he
runs, when he eats, when he walks or talks,
when he makes pictures or writes letters in the
snow or when he puts a snack of bacon
meat with stripes of fat and lean to hide till
he wants it under a big rock by a river.

214

There on a high stool in a high tower, on a high hill
sits the Head Spotter of the Weather Makers

Tails and Got Them Back

It was easy enough for the rabbit who has
long ears and no tail at all except a white thumb
of cotton. But it was hard for the yellow flong-
boo who at night lights up his house in a hollow
tree with his fire yellow torch of a tail. It is
hard for the yellow flongboo to lose his tail
because it lights up his way when he sneaks
at night on the prairie, sneaking up on the

flangwayers, the hippers and hangjasts, so good
to eat.

The animals picked a committee of repre-
sentatives to represent them in a parleyhoo to
see what steps could be taken by talking to do
something. There were sixty-six representa-
tives on the committee and they decided to call
it the Committee of Sixty Six. It was a dis-
tinguished committee and when they all sat to-
gether holding their mouths under their noses
(just like a distinguished committee) and
blinking their eyes up over their noses and
cleaning their ears and scratching themselves
under the chin looking thoughtful (just like a

217

How the Animals Lost Their

distinguished committee) then anybody would
say just to look at them, "This must be quite
a distinguished committee.51

Of course, they would all have looked more
distinguished if they had had their tails on.
If the big wavy streak of a blue tail blows off
behind a blue fox, he doesn't look near so dis-
tinguished. Or, if the long yellow torch of a
tail blows off behind a yellow flongboo, he
doesn't look so distinguished as he did before the
wind blew.

So the Committee of Sixty Six had a meeting
and a parleyhoo to decide what steps could be
taken by talking to do something. For chair-
man they picked an old flongboo who was an
umpire and used to umpire many mix-ups.
Among the flongboos he was called "the umpire
of umpires," "the king of umpires,53 "the
prince of umpires,55 "the peer of umpires.51
When there was a fight and a snag and a
wrangle between two families living next door
neighbors to each other and this old flongboo

218

Tails and Got Them Back

was called in to umpire and to say which family
was right and which family was wrong, which
family started it and which family ought to
stop it, he used to say, "The best umpire is the
one who knows just how far to go and how far
not to go/ He was from Massachusetts, born
near Chappaquiddick, this old flongboo, and he
lived there in a horse chestnut tree six feet thick
half way between South Hadley and North-
ampton. And at night, before he lost his tail,
he lighted up the big hollow cave inside the
horse chestnut tree with his yellow torch of a
tail.

After he was nominated with speeches and
elected with votes to be the chairman, he stood
up on the platform and took a gavel and banged
with the gavel and made the Committee of
Sixty Six come to order.

"It is no picnic to lose your tail and we are
here for business," he said, banging his gavel
again.

A blue fox from Waco, Texas, with his ears

219

How the Animals Lost Their

full of dry bluebonnet leaves from a hole
where he lived near the Brazos river, stood up
and said, "Mr. Chairman, do I have the floor? "

"You have whatever you get away with — I
get your number," said the chairman.

"I make a motion," said the blue fox from
Waco, "and I move you, Sir, that this com-
mittee get on a train at Philadelphia and ride
on the train till it stops and then take another
train and take more trains and keep on riding
till we get to Medicine Hat, near the Saskatche-
wan river, in the Winnipeg wheat country
where the Head Spotter of the Weather Makers
sits on a high stool in a high tower on a high
hill spotting the weather. There we will ask
him if he will respectfully let us beseech him
to bring back weather that will bring back our
tails. It was the weather took away our tails 5
it is the weather can bring back our tails. >:

"All in favor of the motion," said the chair-
man, "will clean their right ears with their
right paws.);

220

Tails and Got Them Back

And all the blue foxes and all the yellow
flongboos began cleaning their right ears with
their right paws.

"All who are against the motion will clean
their left ears with their left paws/: said the
chairman.

And all the blue foxes and all the yellow
flongboos began cleaning their left ears with
their left paws.

"The motion is carried both ways — it is a
razmataz/: said the chairman. "Once again,
all in favor of the motion will stand up on the
toes of their hind legs and stick their noses
straight up in the air.): And all the blue foxes
and all the yellow flongboos stood up on the toes
of their hind legs and stuck their noses straight
up in the air.

"And now,5: said the chairman, "all who
are against the motion will stand on the top and
the apex of their heads, stick their hind legs
straight up in the air, and make a noise like a
woof woof."

221'

How the Animals Lost Their

And then not one of the blue foxes and not
one of the yellow flongboos stood on the top and
the apex of his head nor stuck his hind legs up
in the air nor made a noise like a woof woof,

"The motion is carried and this is no picnic/'
said the chairman.

So the committee went to Philadelphia to get
on a train to ride on.

"Would you be so kind as to tell us the way
to the union depot/: the chairman asked a po-
liceman. It was the first time a flongboo ever
spoke to a policeman on the streets of Phila-
delphia.

"It pays to be polite/' said the policeman.

"May I ask you again if you would kindly
direct us to the union depot? We wish to ride
on a train/:> said the flongboo.

"Polite persons and angry persons are dif-
ferent kinds," said the policeman.

The flongboo's eyes changed their lights and
a slow torch of fire sprang out behind where
his tail used to be. And speaking to the police-

222

Tails and Got Them Back

man, he said, "Sir, I must inform you, publicly
and respectfully, that we are The Committee
of Sixty Six. We are honorable and distin-
guished representatives from places your honest
and ignorant geography never told you about.
This committee is going to ride on the cars to
Medicine Hat near the Saskatchewan river in
the Winnipeg wheat country where the bliz-
zards and chinooks begin. We have a special
message and a secret errand for the Head Spot-
ter of the Weather Makers."

"I am a polite friend of all respectable people
— that is why I wear this star to arrest people
who are not respectable,5' said the policeman,
touching with his pointing finger the silver and
nickel star fastened with a safety pin on his
blue uniform coat.

"This is the first time ever in the history of
the United States that a committee of sixty-
six blue foxes and flongboos has ever visited a
city in the United States," insinuated the flong-
boo.

223

How the Animals Lost Their

"I beg to be mistaken/" finished the police-
man. "The union depot is under that clock."
And he pointed to a clock near by.

"I thank you for myself, I thank you for the
Committee of Sixty Six, I thank you for the
sake of all the animals in the United States who
have lost their tails/" finished the chairman.

Over to the Philadelphia union depot they
went, all sixty-six, half blue foxes, half flong-
boos. As they pattered pitty-pat, pitty-pat,
each with feet and toenails, ears and hair,
everything but tails, into the Philadelphia union
depot, they had nothing to say. And yet though
they had nothing to say the passengers in the
union depot waiting for trains thought they
had something to say and were saying it. So
the passengers in the union depot waiting for
trains listened. But with all their listening the
passengers never heard the blue foxes and yel-
low flongboos say anything.

"They are saying it to each other in some

224

Tails 'and Got Them Back

strange language from' where they belong,"
said one passenger waiting for a train.

"They have secrets to keep among each
other, and never tell us/' said another passen-
ger.

"We will find out all about it reading the
newspapers upside down to-morrow morning/:
said a third passenger.

Then the blue foxes and the yellow flong-
boos pattered pitty-pat, pitty-pat, each with
feet and toenails, ears and hair, everything ex-
cept tails, pattered scritch scratch over the
stone floors out into the train shed. They
climbed into a special smoking car hooked on
ahead of the engine.

"This car hooked on ahead of the engine was
put on special for us so we will always be ahead
and we will get there before the train does/:
said the chairman to the committee.

The train ran out of the train shed. It kept
on the tracks and never left the rails. It came

225

How the Animals Lost Their

to the Horseshoe Curve near Altoona where
the tracks bend like a big horseshoe. Instead
of going around the long winding bend of the
horseshoe tracks up and around the mountains,
the train acted different. The train jumped
off the tracks down into the valley and cut across
in a straight line on a cut-off, jumped on the
tracks again and went on toward Ohio.

The conductor said, "If you are going to
jump the train off the tracks, tell us about it
beforehand."

"When we lost our tails nobody told us about
it beforehand," said the old flongboo umpire.

Two baby blue foxes, the youngest on the
committee, sat on the front platform. Mile
after mile of chimneys went by. Four hundred
smokestacks stood in a row and tubs on tubs of
sooty black soot marched out.

"This is the place where the black cats come
to be washed," said the first baby blue fox.

"I believe your affidavit," said the second
blue fox.

226

Tails and Got Them Back

Crossing Ohio and Indiana at night the flong-
boos took off the roof of the car. The con-
ductor told them, "I must have an explana-
tion." "It was between us and the stars/' they
told him.

The train ran into Chicago. That afternoon
there were pictures upside down in the news-
papers showing the blue foxes and the yellow
flongboos climbing telephone poles standing on
their heads eating pink ice cream with iron
axes.

Each blue fox and yellow flongboo got a
newspaper for himself and each one looked long
and careful upside down to see how he looked
in the picture in the newspaper climbing a tele-
phone pole standing on his head eating pink ice
cream with an iron ax.

Crossing Minnesota the sky began to fill with
the snow ghosts of Minnesota snow weather.
Again the foxes and flongboos lifted the roof
off the car, telling the conductor they would
rather wreck the train than miss the big show

227

How the Animals Lost Their

of the snow ghosts of the first Minnesota snow
weather of the winter,

Some went to sleep but the two baby blue
foxes stayed up all night watching the snow
ghosts and telling snow ghost stories to each
other.

Early in the night the first baby blue fox said
to the second, "Who are the snow ghosts the
ghosts of?3 The second baby blue fox an-
swered, "Everybody who makes a snowball, a
snow man, a snow fox or a snow fish or a snow
pattycake, everybody has a snow ghost. y

And that was only the beginning of theii}
talk. It would take a big book to tell all that
the two baby foxes told each other that night
about the Minnesota snow ghosts, because they
sat up all night telling old stories their fathers
and mothers and grandfathers and grandmoth-
ers told them, and making up new stories never
heard before about where the snow ghosts go
on Christmas morning and how the snow ghosts

watch the New Year in.

228

Tails and Got Them Back

Somewhere between Winnipeg and Moose
Jaw, somewhere it was they stopped the train
and all ran out in the snow where the white
moon was shining down a valley of birch trees.
It was the Snowbird Valley where all the snow-
birds of Canada come early in the winter and
make their snow shoes.

At last they came to Medicine Hat, near the
Saskatchewan River, where the blizzards and
the chinooks begin, where nobody works un-
less they have to and they nearly all have to.
There they ran in the snow till they came to
the place where the Head Spotter of the
Weather Makers sits on a high stool in a high
tower on a high hill watching the weather.

"Let loose another big wind to blow back our
tails to us, let loose a big freeze to freeze our
tails onto us again, and so let us get back our
lost tails," they said to the Head Spotter of the
Weather Makers.

Which was just what he did, giving them
exactly what they wanted, so they all went back

229

How the Animals Lost Their Tails

home satisfied, the blue foxes each with a big
wavy brush of a tail to help him when he runs,
when he eats, when he walks or talks, when
he makes pictures or writes letters in the snow
or when he puts a snack of bacon meat with
stripes of fat and lean to hide till he wants it
under a big rock by the river — and the yellow
flongboos each with a long yellow torch of a
tail to light up his home in a hollow tree or to
light up his way when he sneaks at night on
the prairie, sneaking up on the flangwayer, the
hipper or the hangjast.

230

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